Pirate Irwin

The Tortured Detective Pirate Irwin

'Pirate Irwin is brilliant at creating character, plot and an all pervading sense of moral ambiguity. The period detail is impeccable' Patrick Bishop

1942. Paris is a city under occupation.

Detective Inspector Lafarge, a former prisoner of war, is sent to investigate the murder of the beautiful young film actress Marguerite Suchet.

The man who has called upon him is the Vichy chief of police René Bousquet - who Lafarge despises.

The chief suspect is a lawyer and avowed anti-Nazi, Pierre-Yves de Chastelain.

But is he only being targeted because of his run-ins with the law before the war broke out?

Lafarge quickly discovers that both Bousquet and an Abwehr officer who was the lover of the film star are equally suspect.

Have they found an easy suspect to become the fall guy?

And are they manipulating Lafarge, and the law, to cover their own tracks?

As Lafarge becomes increasingly repelled by his colleagues' behaviour towards all those who oppose the Nazis, he must question the allegiances and loyalty of everyone around him...and ultimately his own as well.

The Tortured Detective is an exciting historical thriller set amidst the complex divided loyalties of France during World War II.

'A brilliant detective story that captures the tensions of the era.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Trade Off.

Pirate Irwin is a journalist and author based in Paris. As a sports journalist he has covered nearly every single major world sporting event reporting from four Football World Cups to four Olympic Games. His first novel was The Twisted Patriot which was nominated for the Amazon debut novel award, the Breakthrough award.