Bloody Winter

The body of a vagrant is discovered in a ditch outside the town of Dundrum in County Tipperary. The local land agent tells Knox, a young Irish policeman with divided loyalties, that the landowner wants the case dealt with swiftly and quietly. However when Knox examines the corpse, it becomes clear to Knox that the stranger came from London.Three months earlier Detective Inspector Pyke receives a letter from the daughter of a family friend whose son has been kidnapped. Lured by the promise of a substantial fee and wanting to escape the tensions of Scotland Yard, Pyke agrees to go to Wales to investigate. There, he discovers a town riven with social discord following the brutal suppression of a workers strike and the importation of cheap Irish labour. The kidnapping is linked to a group of rebels but Pyke soon begins to suspect the case is not as clear cut as it seems.