Polka Dot Girl, The - Tapa blanda

Madeleine Greenhill was rich, beautiful, reckless...now she's dead, dumped in the water. Her mother Misericordiae is the most feared woman in Hera City, which puts added pressure on investigating detective Eugenie Auf der Maur. Gutsy, smart and likeable, 'Genie' thought she knew the strange, all-female world of Hera inside-out. She was wrong, and gets drawn into a labyrinth of sex and money, power and religion, double-cross and corruption. Nothing is at seems and nobody can be trusted as she becomes obsessed with finding the girl's killer. Hard-edged and soft-hearted, The Polka Dot Girl combines a serpentine plot, bristling dialogue and shadowy, sensuous atmosphere to create a classic noir-style mystery: Sam Spade in lipstick and a dress. In Hera City, the female of the species really can be deadly.

Darragh McManus is an Irish author, journalist, playwright and screenwriter. HIs crime novels Even Flow and The Polka Dot Girl are published by Roundfire. He is a journalist with the Guardian, Sunday Times and others, and is currently writing a Young Adult novel inspired by Irish mythology.