The Dolocher - Caroline Barry

When murderer Olocher commits suicide in the Black Dog Prison on the eve of his execution, terror is unleashed upon Dublin. A mysterious creature stalks the streets and women report attacks by a half-man, half-pig possessed by Olocher's dark spirit. The Dolocher is on the loose. At least that's the story down-at-heel writer Solomon Fish peddles in his broadsheets, and the people of Dublin can't get enough of his gruesome tales. To Solomon, it's only an ordinary man playing a tasteless trick, a sensational story that will soon blow over. But when the Dolocher starts killing and Solomon himself is set upon by the beast, he starts to have doubts. With the help of his swashbuckling landlady, ship's surgeon-turned-apothecary Merriment O'Grady, Solomon swears to unmask the Dolocher. Yet Solomon and Merriment soon find themselves torn between reason and superstition, their heads and their hearts as they strive to solve the mystery. But are they hunting the Dolocher or is it hunting them?