On the eve of St Patrick’s Day, 1882, Christchurch’s Irish community prepares to welcome the greatest Irish entertainer of the age – the ‘Dancing Man’. On that same day, detective Inspector O’Rorke is invited to an elegant dinner party. As he and the captivating Mrs Martin, are drawn towards each other, they must come to terms with the disapproval of society and the emergence of past secrets which threaten not only to ruin her reputation and blight his career, but endanger their lives. The Dancing Man follows the career of Inspector O’Rorke, and is intricate in plot, shifting in time and place between Christchurch in 1882, Capetown in 1870, the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the Irish Fenian Rising. It is a story about loyalty and love, sexual freedom, and the futility of attempting to evade the remorseless undertow of past events. Also by Edmund Bohan: Edward Stafford: New Zealand’s First Statesman, The Opawa Affair.