Potter's Field — Ann C. Fallon

POP ART

Patrick Duggan's promising career as a potter came to an abrupt end with a blow to the back of his head. The murder weapon: a planter of his own design. Dublin police brand the case a robbery gone awry, but Duggan's friend Father Tom suspects otherwise. The priest enlists the help of solicitor James Fleming, who has inadvertently acquired a reputation as an expert sleuth.

James's investigation takes him to the artists colony at nearby Carrigbawn, a bucolic setting that Duggan had recently fled for the grimier confines of Dublin. Although accepted into Carrigbawn's mannerly circle of artists and intellectuals, James is nonetheless ill at ease. Armed with only a mysterious photograph found among Duggan's effects, he discovers that beneath the community's picture perfect facade lies an ugly family secret ... a cunning deception that has already claimed another life!