A Cork coder can’t stay invisible when the River Lee gives up its dead.

In rain-soaked Cork, reclusive coder Mason Maloney lives alone in a cramped attic, chasing clean logic on a glowing screen while a human skull watches from the shelf above his monitor. He keeps his head down, his green cap low, and his past at arm’s length—until Cassandra, an art dealer from Dublin, is found dead in the river.

Mason’s plan is simple: stay invisible, stick to his small rituals, and avoid the questions he can’t answer. But Detective Sergeant Brianna Friday has a talent for prising at weak seams, and Tim Button—a visiting academic who can’t leave the scene alone—keeps turning up where Mason most needs distance. Then Arty Armitage steps back into Mason’s orbit, unnervingly composed and close enough to know exactly which hurts still run under the skin.

As the investigation tightens, Cork begins to feel like a closed room: whispers of ghosts, the glare of suspicion, and an art-and-money trail that refuses to stay local. Mason risks losing the fragile life he’s built, the few people who choose him, and the one thing he’s always relied on—control.

Content notes: strong language; explicit sex between men; moderate violence/peril.

Series: Book 1 of Memento Mori (can be read as a standalone).

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