McCadden is hotly tipped to take over the all-Ireland Murder Squad, but that's before an unholy mess lands on his own doorstep.

The Irish Minister for Justice is about to re-form the Murder Squad, an elite unit with exclusive responsibility for investigating homicides throughout the Irish state. Its first investigation is expected to centre on a cluster of unsolved murders of women, and DI Carl McCadden, currently stationed at Waterford, is hotly tipped to lead the new unit.

Unfortunately, in the weeks leading up to this prestigious assignment, an old acquaintance, an undercover cop named Rookie Wallace, turns up on McCadden's patch in a bad state and with a bizarre story. While on undercover work in a block of Dublin flats, Wallace and the small-time pusher he was cultivating stumbled on a body with the head stove in. Next day, Wallace saw a photograph of the dead man in the papers, along with a report that he had drowned in County Waterford, two hundred miles from where Wallace found him. The day after, Special Branch men tried to kill Wallace.

It's obvious that Wallace has stumbled into some heavy stuff, particularly when the official line turns out to be that Wallace has gone rogue, and thrown his lot in with the villains he was supposed to be infiltrating. McCadden knows that the smart thing to do is stay out of it and keep his nose clean for a few weeks until he's landed the big job, especially when he realises that the Minister for Justice, his soon-to-be boss, is showing signs of misusing his privileged position.

Crazy Man Michael is the fourth in Jim Lusby's complex, subtle and compulsive McCadden mysteries.