An unidentified murder victim - 'The Virgin Tramp' - is found in a vacant lot in the shadow of the L.A. Coliseum and precipitates a storm centre in the lives of scores of people. The Right Reverend Monsignor Desmond Spellacy is the chancellor of the archdiocese of L.A., a man clearly on the rise to even greater eminence in the church. His brother, Homicide Lieutenant Tom Spellacy is in charge of the murder investigation. Tom and Des inhabit the world of favours and fixes, power and promises, priests and pimps, cops and contractors, boxers and jockeys, lesbian fight promoters and lawyers who know only how to put the fix in.

True Confessions is a vital, vibrant novel about a crime that has no solutions, only victims, and about the complex relationship between brothers tainted by guilt and hostility, who ultimately find their salvation in each other.