Trinity professor and Joycean scholar Kevin Coyle was one of Dublin s most colorful -- and controversial -- characters， until someone stabbed him through the heart on Bloomsday， the annual citywide celebration honoring Ireland s most beloved literary light. The poetic irony is not lost on Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr: one of the foremost experts on the works of James Joyce was slain on the so-called "Murderers Ground" made famous in the author s magnum opus Ulysses. But the connection does not end there. And the deeper the intrepid McGarr digs， the more startling truths he uncovers about a victim s dark， licentious history， a list of suspects as vast and varied as the characters in a great novel ... and a motive for murder that can hide as easily in the pages of a classic book as in the twisted passions of a human heart.