A ex-cop names his poison. For former San  Francisco cop Dismas Hardy, Guinness Stout with Bass Ale  is the drink of choice, but a straight Irish  whiskey will do anytime. The news of young Eddie  Cochran's death calls for a double. The cops think  it's suicide, but even to a lapsed Catholic like  Hardy, it sounds wrong. Doubts lead him back into the  heart of the Little Shamrock, into memories of  warm kitchens, cold churches, and sins unforgetten.  Blood ties still bind Eddie's family--his  beautiful mother, his pregnant widow, his hot-tempered  brothers, his compassionate priest. But old secrets  and raw angers gnaw at the fabric of their lives.  And Hardy's insticts warn him-someone else is  going to die.