Description
In the months following World War II, Ray Irish travels from town to town trying to drown the memories of pain and carnage with bottles of whiskey. He is a tramp, and his mode of transportation is the inside of railroad cattle cars. When Irish drifts into Oyster City, a struggling, crime-ridden town nestled along the Chesapeake Bay, a chance encounter in a back alley gives him an unanticipated job as a private detective along with a couple of new suits. Working for the corrupt man he saves, Irish quickly discovers his new home has a polished veneer that barely conceals layers of betrayal and deception. Thugs and masked, robed figures haunt the alleys at night while the city sleeps.
Paired with a conniving woman photographer named Cat, Irish descends into a world of grifters, racketeers, and cops on the take. Something more ominous lies behind the tranquil image that is projected by the town elders. The grisly murders of a chauffeur and a policeman are only part of a web of odd occurrences involving strange people wearing the masks of tarot card characters. While Irish battles with gangster thugs who have him in their sights, the ex-Seabee follows a chain of unusual events which might lead to a murderer or his death.
He will need the luck of the Irish to survive in a city that hates outsiders.
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