'This is nothing less than the work of a genuine master, a must-read' - Billy O'Callaghan

'Wonderful, shape-shifting stuff' - Colum McCann

Chenevix Meredith, recently retired, is whiling away his time somewhere on the south coast of England, when his old colleague, Henry Plumm, is found dead. The discovery prompts Meredith to reminisce about their days in 1960s Dublin, where the pair ran a theatrical agency - except this theatrical agency was actually an outpost of the British state, and the duo were investigating the city's terrorist networks as undercover agents. Now, following the murder of his friend, Meredith is forced to contend with the buried darkness of their past.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

Patrick McCabe was born in Clones, County Monaghan. He is the author of The Butcher Boy, which won the Irish Times Literature Prize for Fiction; The Dead School; Breakfast on Pluto and others. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into feature films by Neil Jordan. Winterwood was named the 2007 Hughes & Hughes/Irish Independent Novel of the Year. He now lives in Clones.