Finger

Finger is a first novel. The story of a boy, an Irish boy, Brendan. Brendan has prodigious talents in two directions; mathematics and crime. Both skills have a common thread, both require a good deal of deep thought and forward planning. His mathematical skill is discovered by one of his school teachers. Brendan sets himself the ambitious task of solving a long-standing problem in mathematics (the so-called 'Polygon Problem'). Out of financial necessity, he abandons school and is apprenticed to a maker of violins. Here, within five years, Brendan acquires the skills necessary to make his first instrument and to commit his first major crime - stealing five very valuable violins. In his criminal activities Brendan prefers to work alone. However, in his second major crime, he joins forces with a corrupt copper Sergeant Brian McClusky as he sets himself the task of stealing in excess of £50,000 from the multi-millionaire Charlie (Chas) Earl.

The author, Joe ward, was born in Limerick, Ireland on the 4th January 1949 into a poor rural family. He is one of ten children. When he was four years old he spent nearly three years in the infamous Glin Industrial School (mentioned in Pat McCourt's book Angela's Ashes). Mother and four children escaped the clutches of the Catholic church travelling to England in 1956. Joe did not waste the opportunity given him. By the time he was twenty-five he had obtained a first class honours degree in Mathematics and a PhD specializing in General Relativity. He is now retired following nearly forty years as a Senior Lecturer in the mathematics department of Loughborough University.