County Kerry #2
The follow up to O’Connor’s County Kerry series debut, No Strangers Here, avoids any tinge of sophomore slump. Her thoughtful, well plotted, richly charactered series is set in tiny Dingle, Ireland. The series heroine, Dimpna Wilde, is a vet whose work insinuates itself into the plots in the best possible way. Not only does her work temper some of the gruesomeness O’Connor writes about, it also grounds Dimpna in the community. As the book opens she’s been called to the scene of a hit and run – there’s a baby fox trapped under the body, and the mother fox is giving all the emergency workers on the scene a death stare.
That’s the initial set up. The next thing: Dimpna discovers the dead body of a beautiful young woman who had been living in a trailer in a car park, gruesomely murdered. While the young woman appears to have been problematic, the disruption she’s caused to the Dingle community is not worthy of death, and her murder looks like the work of a particularly sick mind.
Because of an indiscretion, the other series mainstay, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien, is kept to the sidelines of the case. He’s also mourning the very recent death of his mother. O’Brien is still working the case, however, with his Sergeant, Barbara Neely. While O’Brien is new to Dingle, Neely is a local. That sets the stage. The detectives are trying to untangle a case that seems drenched in myth (of the creepiest sort) and there are outbreaks of a 1944 story of a dead girl in a Wych Elm all over town.
The dead woman’s trailer mates (or the purposes of this novel, caravan mates) are confused, angry, and grieving, all at once. Their dogs and a parrot belonging to one of them have been confiscated and they are hindering rather than helping the investigation into the death of their friend. They are the noise and distraction on top of a complicated puzzle.
Some of the puzzle involves animals, especially the fox, and that brings Dimpna into the picture. She and Detective O’Brien have also struck up a very new friendship and possibly something more. The layers of character and behavior in this novel are sensitively drawn and feel true as the author creates portraits of real humans with messy lives who are nevertheless trying to do the right thing.
The mystery part is also well handled, which is no surprise, as O’Connor is a veteran with over a dozen books to her credit. What surprised me with the first book is that most of her work has been straight up cozy. These novels aren’t cozy. While they don’t wallow in darkness, they also don’t avoid complex issues which in this book include a past rape, the death of a parent, a parent with dementia, and the inevitable trouble that comes from murder.
The ultimate ending of the book, however, is mostly optimistic. There’s a belief in the ultimate strength of the human spirit. Dimpna herself is a wonderful personality, and I love the parts that take her to her veterinary practice. As I finished the novel, I completed, in my head, the title of the book: “Some of us are looking at the stars.” Complicated, intelligent, and well written – I hope this series is around for a long time. — Robin Agnew