Sober and disillusioned with London, tabloid journalist Stephen Larkin reluctantly accepts an assignment to cover a gangland funeral back home in Newcastle. Several years earlier he had left sick and disgusted, vowing never to return, but the pull of the city, and the promise of a juicy story, finally persuades him to return. While there, Larkin's old flame Charlotte asks him to check out the alleged suicide of her friend Mary - a course of action that will leave Larkin bruised, battered and with some painful memories of the city he was trying to forget. Dark, compelling and relentless, Mary's Prayer is a razor-edged crime debut from a powerful new voice in crime fiction.