"JFK assassination buffs will enjoy bushwhacking their way through this labyrinthine debut…Walsh orchestrates a gripping tale of the horrors that were set in motion the day a president was murdered." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

In this powerful debut novel Michael Walsh delivers an unparalleled jolt of dark, scintillating suspense that blends John Le Carre with James Ellroy.

Lt. Francis X. Byrne, a smart, ambitious homicide detective on the rise, lives in a rundown Hell's Kitchen apartment and knows far less about his own life than he believes. Struggling with his temper, his drinking and his relationship with a woman who has him outclassed, Byrne is trying to solve the gruesome slaying of a Danish diplomat and following the trail of Egil Ekdhal's short life into a world where beautiful people play the most dangerous of games.

But as Byrne gets closer to Ekdahl's true identity, he collides with the one man he loathes more than any other: his own FBI agent brother. Tom Byrne has broken every rule in pursuit of a spy's Holy Grail: the KGB's top-secret file on Lee Harvey Oswald. It's a dossier that the FBI, the CIA and even the Mafia desperately want—a file stained by blackmail, intimidation and suicide.