The Mountains Wild

Finished April 13

The Mountains Wild by Sarah Stewart Taylor

This is the first book in a mystery series featuring detective Maggie D'arcy who lives in Long Island with her teenage daughter Lilly. Twenty-three years ago, Maggie went to Dublin when her family was told that her cousin Erin was missing. Erin was a complicated person, who had disappeared for days before, but this felt different. Maggie was close to her cousin, though they'd had differences recently, and with her uncle's heart condition, she offered to go over to Ireland to talk to the police on behalf of the family and see what she could find out. 

Maggie is smart and drawn to details, and she soon finds a clue to her cousin's disappearance, but when the case hasn't resulted in anything conclusive after weeks, Maggie returns home to deal with other family issues. 

Now, twenty-three years later, the Dublin police have once again contacted her uncle to say they've found something new connected to the case. Maggie is now a senior police officer with many successful cases behind her, and once again offers to go on behalf of her uncle. She asks her ex-husband Brian to look after Lilly, and returns to the city she grew to love years ago. 

Going back to Dublin not only restarts the case of Erin's disappearance, but also other connections that Maggie made back then, ones to Erin's contacts and to the police involved in the case. 

With her own expertise in police work, Maggie aches to be involved in the case, but the locals don't want to allow that. Instead, she wanders the familiar streets, and retraces her steps from years ago, and contacts the people she met back then. 

There is a lot going on here, with secrets that reach far back into the past. There are also new faces that Maggie gets to know as she tries once again to find the answers to Erin's disappearance. This is a very interesting character that I'd like to see more of, and many interesting connections to other characters that seem long-lasting. The plot is intriguing and has moments of suspense. 

Snow

Finished February 4

Snow by John Banville

This is the first book in a series, that is also related to another series by the author that he published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Here, the main character is a detective inspector with the Garda, the Irish police, and the time is late in 1957. The book begins just a few days before Christmas.

At the manor house Ballyglass, near the village of , in the county of Wexford, a priest is murdered one night. His is discovered by the woman of the house who often wanders in the night, and with the local officer under the weather, DI John Strafford is called in. Like the house owners, Strafford is Protestant, but the priest is Catholic as are most of the people who live in the area. 

The woman of the house, the second wife of the owner, Mr. Osborne is unreliable and often medicated. Osborne and his two teenage children all claim to be sound sleepers who heard nothing. The staff in the house live out, and there seems to be no forced entry. As Strafford delves in the lives of these people, and into the past of the priest, he must also look at his own life and his lack of direction, as well as deal with the power of the church, which is strong in this country. The church, it's history of coverups and abuse have a major role in this story, as they do in reality in many stories. 

The weather plays a role in the book as well, as one can guess from the title. Strafford is woefully unprepared, having only shoes and a thin coat, and he is often borrowing pieces of clothing, offered or not to venture out into the snowy landscape. The weather also affects the actions of others, from the priest staying over at the Osborne's due to the weather, to the delay in assistance arriving.

There are interesting elements of sexuality that also come up several times in the book. 

As always Banville's writing is wonderful, and this story develops slowly, with a few red herrings thrown in for the reader to consider, and a few clues that seem to lie dormant before being followed.

Strafford is an interesting character, who seems to have trouble focusing, and doesn't seem to take notes during his interviews and so loses track of what he knows. It will be interesting to see how he develops in future books.

Closed Casket

Finished July 20
Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah

This story takes place at an Irish manor house of Lady Playford, a famous English children's author. The author has invited a number of people to her house for a weekend, including Inspector Catchpool of Scotland Yard and Hercule Poirot.
Lady Playford's son Harry and daughter-in-law Dorro are also living there as is her daughter Claudia. Her daughter's fiance, Randall Klimpton, a pathologist from Oxford is visiting. Lady Playford has also invited the two principal lawyers from her law firm, Orville Rolfe and Michael Gathercole, and we see her early meeting with one of them as she discusses making a significant change to her will.
Besides these people, there are also staff members: Hatton the butler, the cook Brigid, the maid Phyllis, Lady Playford's secretary Joseph Scotcher, and Scotcher's nurse Sophie Bourlet. Scotcher is suffering from a kidney disease and is not expected to last much longer.
Catchpool and Poirot are not entirely sure why they are there, but the expect it is to prevent something from happening.
Lady Playford is a very manipulative woman who likes to have things her way, and she was the sole recipient of her husband's estate, unusual in those times, although her son did get the title. Claudia is a very forthright young woman, resentful of pretty much everyone and everything and a strong feminist in some ways. Gathercole, her lawyer, originally applied for the job as her secretary and has been a lifelong fan of her writings, crediting them with his success in life. As Lady Playford puts her plan in action, she fails to account for a variety of other variables and it does not unfold to her satisfaction at all, and it is now that Catchpool and Poirot must work together to figure out what has really happened and who is responsible.
An interesting novel, with a more convoluted plot than I prefer. Poirot is himself and it is all neatly wrapped up, but there are many casualties and a sad ending.

The Ruin

Finished March 14
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

This novel, set in Galway, Ireland is a real page-turner. It is the first in a new series featuring detective Cormac Reilly. The book starts with an event from 1993. Cormac is a young policeman, sent out to respond to what he believes is a domestic incident. He has trouble finding the house, and when he gets there finds a teen girl and a young boy and their dead mother. The radio in his car is broken, and the house has no telephone, so Cormac takes the two children to town to the hospital. He tries to follow up on the case, but isn't given any encouragement by his superiors.
Now, it is twenty years later, and Cormac, recently part of a special ops team, is back in Galway with his partner Emma. The move is partially for Emma's job, but also because Cormac could see that they were going to disband his unit and figured it was a good time to leave. But once back, he is frozen out by most of his colleagues, and put on cold cases.
Meanwhile, a young intern, Aisling, discovers she is pregnant. She knows it is the wrong time to have a baby, that she will lose her chance to become a surgeon if she does. So when she returns home from her hospital shift and lets her boyfriend Jack know about her condition, she also shares the difficulties, which causes him to take time to think as well. When she finds him still gone when she wakes, she isn't sure what to think. Has he taken the news harder than she thought? But then, two police arrive at her door and let her know that they found his body in the river, a suspected suicide.
With everything else going on in her life, this is too much of a shock for Aisling. She's is numb, and not thinking clearly. But there is someone else on the scene who is thinking clearly, and acting on those thoughts. It is Jack's sister Maude, a woman who hasn't been in his life for the last twenty years. And Maude doesn't believe that Jack's death was suicide. And the police aren't interested in her theories.
Cormac becomes involved in the case, when he is asked to look again at the death of the woman he found twenty years ago, Maude and Jack's mother. Did she really die by her own hand as the police thought, or was someone else involved. As Cormac digs into the old case, he finds himself finding that outside influences have effects on investigations, both past and present, and he must make difficult choices.
This is a great series introduction, and I definitely want to read more about Cormac and his colleagues.

Death at Christy Burke's

Finished November 6
Death at Christy Burke's by Anne Emery
This novel is part of the Collins-Burke mystery series featuring Father Brennan Burke and lawyer Monty Collins of Halifax. Here, the adventures take place in Ireland, mostly in Dublin.
Monsignor Michael O'Flaherty, Burke's boss, is on vacation in Ireland, a place where he regularly brings Canadian pilgrims touring holy sites. He has just seen off a tour group and is looking forward to relaxing and spending time with friends. Burke and Collins are both here on vacation as well and Michael spends a good deal of time with them. Burke's uncle Finn runs a local named Christy Burke's and it has been targeted lately by unpleasant graffiti. Finn asks them to keep an ear and eye open for anything that may help figure out who did the vandalism. Michael decides to look into the background of the bar's regulars and his search leads him around Ireland, into Northern Ireland, and across to England as well. Burke gets drawn into family intrigues, some of which he isn't that comfortable with. Collins is less active in this mystery, helping with some information but also preoccupied with his own family issues.
The Irish conflict figures large in this book, and we get history as well as the present day goings on. I think it is this aspect that made the book dense for a mystery, the detail of information relevant, yet requiring concentration. There are many good characters here, with backgrounds more complex that they seem at first. An interesting story.

Page-Turner

Finished August 11
Darling Jim by Christian Moerk
This is a gripping story, with a very different plot.
The story begins with the grisly discover of bloated and emaciated bodies in a house. It is unclear exactly what happened, but it would appear that the older woman, Moira has killed her two nieces and been killed herself in a struggle with one of them.
When Niall, a young postman discovers the diary of one of the women in the dead letter bin, he feels compelled to follow the story back to its source and find out the truth of what led to this tragedy. His story takes him to a small village near Cork, to fairytale-like stories of wolves and castles, and to three sisters who cared about each very much.
It took me a while to get into this story but once I did, I could hardly put it down. The story just flows and Niall is a young man who believes in stories, and what librarian doesn't like that!

Undercover Thriller

Finished March 29
The Likeness by Tana French
This is a long read, more than 400 pages, but an interesting one. Cassie Maddox is a detective in Dublin and she has recently moved from Murder to Domestic Violence following a difficult murder case that affected her psychologically. (See French's previous book In The Woods for that case.) Back when Cassie first started in the police force she did a spot of undercover work and this case leads her back to that.
Here, a young woman is found dead in an abandoned cottage in a rural area. The interesting things are that she is a dead ringer for Cassie, and she is living under the name Lexie Madison, a name Cassie used years ago when she was undercover. Cassie agrees to go undercover again as this young woman to see what led to her death.
Lexie lives with 4 other grad students in a house inherited by one of them. They are a close-knit group and operate more or less as a family. As Cassie takes on the role of Lexie, she finds herself seduced by the comfort of the situation, and must work hard to keep her mind on why she is there. We see things from Cassie's point of view and therefore are privy to her decision-making process as she determines what to share and what not to share with her superiors.
There are many tense moments and an interesting conclusion.

Second in a series

Finished September 22
The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
This second in a series featuring Dublin pathologist Quirke is by John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. This is set a few years after Christine Falls, the first in the series and opens with Quirke being asked a favour by an old schoolfriend. The friend's wife has been found dead, naked and seemingly drowned and he asks that a postmortem not be done. He says he doesn't want her body dealt with in that way. Quirke is intrigued and agrees, but finds interesting information when he examines the body. He is "getting himself in trouble" again. He feels out his contact from the police, Inspector Hackett and without asking for his help, arouses suspicions in him as well. As the two men work separately to discover the truth about what happened to Deirdre Hunt, Quirke's daughter Phoebe becomes involved and is in possible danger.
The book was well written and the characters well developed, but I didn't like anybody, and thus the novel never really grabbed me. Quirke is a sad character, driven by his own past, but never really facing up to things and I find that sad.

Vacation Reading

I've just come back from a week away, so here is what I've been reading.


Finished August 23
Borderlands by Brian McGilloway
I've been carrying this one around for a while in my purse for waiting in lineups and at offices. It is the first in a new series featuring Inspector Devlin of the Garda in Ireland.
Local teen Angela Cashell's body is found on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. There is a ring on her finger, and a photo placed with her body.
As Devlin and his team work the case, they are led back to a disappearance of a woman 25 years before and clues that link to many men, on both sides of the law.
The personal life of Devlin and his fellow police officers is also brought into the book. His wife Debbie is no pushover and she often gives him useful advice.
I liked this book and will look for more as the series progresses.


Finished August 27
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
The subtitle of this book is "a sheep detective story," and that is definitely what this is. George the shepherd is found dead, a spade through his body. The sheep find him first and after the initial shock try to work out what happened. George read to his sheep regularly and on many subjects including sheep diseases and romance novels (what the sheep call "Pamela stories"). The sheep are led in their detective work by Miss Maple, the cleverest sheep in Glennkill. Also taking on significant roles are Mopple the Whale, the memory sheep; Othello, a black Hebridean four-horned ram, and Zora, a brave black-faced sheep. The characters of the sheep are well-developed and show individuality. There is much humour here and great fun. This is a good summer read, and I left it with my mother to be passed around among her needleworker friends.


Finished August 28
The Postcard by Tony Abbott
This book is for 8-12 year-olds and I found it to have a unique story. Jason Huff is sent off to Florida after his grandmother's death to assist his father in packing up her belongings. His grandmother, Agnes Monroe Huff was the daughter of a wealthy man, who owned a hotel among other holdings. Jason receives a strange phone call that leads him to the discovery of a postcard among his grandmother's things. The postcard shows the Hotel DeSoto, the hotel owned by Jason's great-grandfather. He also finds a magazine, Bizarre Mysteries, with a story that seems to be about his grandmother. At the funeral, Jason notices many strange characters. As Jason follows the clues left to him, and is joined by Dia, a young friend of his grandmother, he finds himself more and more interested in his grandmother and her life.
Jason is an interesting boy, respectful of adults, yet not a goody-goody. The story developed in interesting ways and was theatrical in plot.
I've left this book with my eight-year-old niece to read.


Finished August 29
Like Eating a Stone: Surviving the Past in Bosnia by Wojciech Tochman, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
This book was a finalist for the Nike Polish Literary Prize and for the Prix Temoin du Monde. First published in 2002, this is the first English translation. The book begins with a quote from Tadeusz Mazowiecki about the Bosnia War: "Humanity unites us in misfortune, in experiencing it. If only people understood that." Tochman does his best to help us do that.
The stories cover the Serb Republic (not Serbia) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His stories of survivors searching for family members as well as their remains are poignant. Over 100,000 people died in the wars, and it was years before the mass graves began to be exhumed. The book includes a picture to begin each chapter. One chapter talks about the displays of victims clothing, and the codes that indicate how much of the victim's body was found. Another talks about life in the refugee camps. There is mention of the abandoned towns and villages and some attempts to repopulate these. One key figure in the stories is Dr. Ewa Klonowski, born in Poland and now living in Iceland. She spends all her time trying to identify bodies, and it has become her life. She talks about how the bones speak to her.
While this is a short book, it is a book that touches the reader.

Finished August 31
Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn D.Wall
This mystery is set in Kentucky in 1938. Olivia has run Harker's Grocery since her father died and she recovered from a car crash. Her mentally unbalanced mother Ida lives in a tarpaper shack out back. With Olivia lives her grandson William who she has raised. This year someone is hunting the silver wolves that live on Olivia's land and as she tries to find out why, she also finds out that she and William are also under threat.
The reappearance of William's mother begins the revelation of terrible secrets among the community and about Olivia's family. As Olivia searches desperately to save herself and her friends, she must confront the evil that has bound her community for years.
This story is riveting and intense and Olivia is a genuine rebel who has friends in both the white and the black people in her community. She has raised William to be strong as well and he fights for what he feels is right alongside her. This story takes the reader to a specific region and time period and brings it alive. I found it engrossing.