Patrick Price-Johnson is on remand for the murder and intimate assault of a woman priest. His story begins with a mundane article for a local newspaper, but when his girlfriend Julia gets involved the stakes are raised. Patrick finds himself manipulated into a piece of literary detective work about the theological doctrine of midrash which will uncover a Church of England sex scandal. Or so he thinks. It is a journey that will drag him through fear, hypocrisy and despair to the darker side of love and faith and to a sad question: is unrequited love the only love that lasts?

ROSEMARY FURBER, a former City solicitor, has been a freelance journalist and was a founding team member of The Week. Her first novel, What You See Is What You Get, for children, was published in Ireland in 2005. A prison visitor, she was born in Belfast and lives with her family in London.