Ian Murphy buries his life-long friend Kieran Fitzpatrick. As a result, his life is adrift; Ian is incapable of overcoming dependence on whiskey. Every day, he battles the eternal dark night. Ian reluctantly accepts his friend's last wish, to mentor Kieran's twenty-two-year-old nephew, William Butler Boyle.



Five years after approving the Good Friday Peace Agreement, Northern Ireland struggles to break Britain's shackles. Sinn Fein recruits Ian Murphy to convince Catholics to vote in the 2003 national election because the party is on the brink of huge gains. Murphy naively believes if he works on the election, he will finally be able overcome the guilt and remorse he bears for his days as an IRA volunteer. Following the successful election for Sinn Fein, Ian returns to Cork exhausted and still burdened by guilt.



His new friend, Oisin O'Leary, convinces Ian he can fulfill has obligation to mentor William and make an act of contrition to the Irish people by writing a memoir stage play. Ian's play is presented and at the closing curtain, he offers it as his act of contrition to the Irish people.

DEAD RECKONING is the third and final book in the Ian Murphy Irish Troubles series.