A Stone of the Heart

Set in Brady's native Ireland, his debut towers above the mystery category as an eloquent, compelling novel about The Troubles. Sgt. Minogue of the Dublin Garda is assigned the case when Jarlath Walsh, a student at Trinity College, is murdered. Questioning the victim's girlfriend, professors and the college security chief, Minogue learns little except that the victim had no known enemies. The consensus is that everyone liked the naive youth, despite his foolish idea that Trinity's hallowed grounds were being infiltrated by conspirators abetting IRA terrorists. Since rebels from the North are killing the detective's fellow officers in repeated shoot-outs, he feels ``Walsh's ``notion'' was justified and joins in the all-out search for the cabal. As the Gardai move across the counties on the heels of a slippery ``Yank'' and a famous Irish playwright, events assume nightmarish proportions, especially for Minogue. Acting on honed instinct, he flies to the border at Ulster in hopes of preventing another sacrifice to the cause. This is where the curtain falls on the last act of a tragic drama involving many characters, each so skillfully realized that one virtually sees and hears them as human in this extraordinary novel. (July)