Sky

One of the Irish-Canadian-American subversive groups that spawned from Dublin's 1972 Bloody Sunday is at the core of Purcell's convoluted latest book (after Ashes of Roses). One such group has tentacles in Butte, Montana, where Butte newspaper reporter Sky MacPherson is doing an in-depth obituary on one of the city's most prominent citizens. The article is attracting more attention than normal-especially from Fergus Lynsky, a Dublin police officer posing as a schoolteacher on holiday. Fergus, whose business in Butte is to investigate international drug trafficking, senses something other than drugs is going on. A trip to Dublin brings Sky and Fergus to the crux of the conspiracy: the assassination of the Prince of Wales. Purcell, whose complex plotting and heavily euphemistic style is often more confusing than entertaining, leaves her audience struggling to fit the pieces of this tale together. (Mar.)