A young mother, her infant son and a Catholic priest are all murdered by a delusional young man.

The spruces are so close together that the barks are a sable-brown.
Michael O'Kane is known as the 'Kinderschrek', the 'child scarer'. He haunts Cloosh Wood in western Ireland. As a boy he lost his mother and by the age of ten he was in prison. Now he seeks sacrificial victims to satisfy his delusional fantasies: a beautiful young mother, her infant son and a trusting priest, who are enticed into the forest.

Inspired by a real triple homicide, this novel is a 'tour de force of finely restrained fury' (Newsday).