Ireland

Author interview: R.P. O’Donnell

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I absolutely loved R.P. O’Donnell’s first novel, No Comfort for the Dead, set in tiny Castlefreke, Ireland.  The book follows the journey of the town librarian, Emma, and it’s an evocative, beautifully written and felt novel.  This is a writer who is giving readers much to enjoy, and much to look forward to.  The lovely prose reminded me of Louise Penny.  This is not a book to be missed!  I was delighted when he agreed to answer a few questions.

Q: First of all, let me just say I loved the book.  One of the reasons was character, especially Emma.  Can you talk about how you developed your characters and populated the story? read more

R.P. O’Donnell: No Comfort for the Dead

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Castlefreke #1

Welcome to my first book crush of the new year.  It’s set in the late 80s, as tiny Castlefreke in County Cork, Ireland, experiences a shrinkage as jobs and inhabitants flee for bigger towns and more opportunity. Swimming against that tide is central character Emma, the town librarian, who has returned home to live with her dad, Sam, after her dream career in the Garda didn’t work out.  After one of Sam’s frequent nags about moving on, Emma takes off and ends up at the “Big House” in town. There she hears shots, witnesses a man fleeing, and finds the reclusive owner dead and another unknown man injured, then takes off to the town doctor to summon help. read more

Carlene O’Connor: Some of Us Are Looking

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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. read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: The Drowning Sea

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The third novel in Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Maggie D’Arcy series finds Maggie at a crossroads.  Formerly a Long Island cop, she’s now unemployed, and in Ireland with her daughter, on holiday with her boyfriend, Connor and his son. The first novel was Maggie’s journey backwards: she looked for the killer of her cousin, who had disappeared in Ireland twenty years before.  The second novel finds her investigating a crime that begins on a Long Island beach but has roots in Ireland.  This third novel finds her firmly in Ireland, planning to move there, and deciding what she should do as far as a new career.  As the book makes obvious, she very much misses police work and hates being on the outside looking in (this is a clue to her eventual decision, but it’s hardly a spoiler). read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: A Distant Grave

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The second in Stewart Taylor’s Maggie D’Arcy series follows her elegiac first outing, The Mountains Wild, my favorite read of 2020.  Maggie is a Long Island homicide cop, but as the first novel explored, she has deep roots in Ireland.  In the first novel she searches for her long lost cousin’s killer; in the second novel, the crime occurs up the street from her home, but the roots of the story again take her back to Ireland.

She’s left behind a new-old flame in Ireland and has been planning a long vacation there with her daughter to visit him, but she catches a homicide case two days before they plan to leave.  When it turns out the victim was Irish, she figures she can combine business and pleasure, and her boss gives her leave to take off. read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: The Mountains Wild

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This novel will be released on June 23, 2020.

I was a huge fan of Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Sweeney St. George series, published in the early 2000’s.  Sweeney was an expert on gravestone iconography, and the books were beautifully written, thoughtful mysteries.  Stewart Taylor has been away from mystery fiction since 2006, and this return feels more polished, more pointed in its narrative drive – it’s a step up.  I’ll say up front it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

It’s not a total departure from the Sweeney books – the passion is there, the love of history is there, but it’s more focused.  It follows the story of Maggie D’Arcy, who, as an adult, is a homicide detective on Long Island, but who, as a 20 something, lost the cousin who was like a sister to her.  The cousin, Erin, had left the states for Ireland, and hasn’t been heard from since 1993.  There are other young women who were killed (and discovered) in the same area, and Maggie and the rest of her family are pretty sure Erin is dead, but they’d like to know. read more