The Turbulent Priests

Dan Starkey investigates the birth of a new Messiah on a small island off the coast of Ireland. Back together with his wife Patricia and the baby -- Little Stevie -- that resulted from her affair, Dan accepts a curious commission from Cardinal Daley to investigate the tiny island of Wrathlin, where the inhabitants appear to believe that the new Messiah has been born. The child in question turns out to be a girl called Christine, and the local population has become as defensive and generally crazy as the cast of The Crucible. At first it's just funny for Dan and Trish, but fairly soon the mood turns very much darker. Packed with Bateman's trademarket mixture of jokes, shocks and tenderness, Turbulent Priests is his best novel yet.