Tom MacDonald

Dermot Sparhawk, a former All American Boston College football hero, is stacking cans in a parish food pantry in Boston's Charlestown, when his godfather, Jeepster Hennessey, shows up with a knife in his back and dies at Dermot's feet. Once slated for a professional football career, now a recovering alcoholic, with a torn-up knee, Dermot sets out to solve the murder of his godfather with the help of his Micmac Indian cousin, his paraplegic tenant,...

"Sparhawk, a struggling alcoholic, agrees to help find the killer of an accused pedophile priest. When two more priests are slain, it becomes evident that it is the work of a sadistic serial killer who crucifies his prey after killing them"--Dust jacket flap.

Authors on a panel discuss their recent books and respond to questions from the audience.

Ross Macdonald sums up the themes that haunted him: the guilty secrets passed on within families, and the violence that can arise when those secrets refuse to remain buried. He extends his portrait of Southern California as a land of seeming abundance racked by hidden obsessions and simmering discontents.