So you are the men they have sent to kill me . . .

Philadelphia, 1874. A young Pinkerton detective called James McParland is dispatched to the Pennsylvania coalfields on a high-stakes mission: to infiltrate the Molly Maguires, a violent secret society sworn to avenge injustice against the Irish. For a farmer's son from rural Ulster, still struggling to make his mark in the world, it's the chance of a lifetime.

For two and a half years McParland lives under a false identity, climbing the ranks of the Molly Maguires, drawn ever-deeper into their murderous conspiracies. But he knows the Irish hate nothing more than informers. How far can he go, before his comrades discover his true identity? As the bullets fly and the bodies mount up, his employers fear he is getting too close to the men they want to hang. Whose side is he really on?

Award-winning novelist Michael Hughes dives deep into his own family history to tell the extraordinary true story of the most famous detective of his time. McParland is a gripping literary thriller of loyalty and betrayal, and a vivid account of ruthless capitalism in Gilded Age America.