"The Loser Dies First" is a taut, fast-paced international mystery/thriller that grabs the reader from the opening murder scene to the shocking conclusion. The realistic characters are complex and compromised, broken and disturbed. Much of this exciting story is set in Ireland. It is apropos. For Hayden's enticing red-haired heroine, Caitlin, could be best described as the poet, W.B. Yeats once said of that Emerald Isle, "a terrible beauty."