The Detective's Muse by Brian Delahunt is an innovative literary mystery about the cost of love and the hope for the future. When Lieutenant O'Huiginn investigates a brutal crime, he's stunned to see that the victim's best friend resembles his dead fiance. His creative fire reawakened, O'Huiginn begins a search for the killers, even as he's determined to finish the aisling poem that has been tormenting him since childhood. Beautifully written, this thinking person's mystery is as original as it is provocative, offering a message that even with the greatest losses, there is always hope. The Detective's Muse is that rare combination of powerful thriller and beautiful literature, both strong and musical, exciting and emotionally stirring. His characterization runs deep and the early Irish poetry he writes about here colors the book with its rhythms and sense of history. Brian Delahunt is a helluva writer. --Shelley (Lee) Singer. author of the near-future thriller Blackjack, and the Jake Samson and Barrett Lake mystery series.