Irish Mystery

William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of the popular Cork O’Connor mysteries. In Purgatory Ridge, Krueger crafts a riveting tale which has ex-sheriff O’Connor on the case after a heated town debate turns deadly. The local Anishinaabe Indian tribe is furious to discover that Karl Lindstrom’s lumber mill is after a grove of trees sacred to tribal lore. So when the mill gets bombed, killing a man, the tribe is blamed. But O’Connor has a different theory.

June 1920. In a house with a red door lies the body of a woman who has been bludgeoned to death. Rumor has it that two years earlier, she'd painted that door to welcome her husband back from the Front - only he never came home. Meanwhile, in London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness first goes missing and then just as suddenly reappears. He is unable to explain his recovery. Inspector Ian Rutledge must solve the cases.

The year is 1920: Flying in the face of convention, legendary American adventuress Beryl Helliwell never fails to surprise and shock. The last thing her adoring public would expect is that she craves some peace and quiet. The humdrum hamlet of Walmsley Parva in the English countryside seems just the ticket. And, honestly, until America comes to its senses and repeals Prohibition, Beryl has no intention of returning stateside and subjecting herself to bathtub gin.

Mercy and Lizzie McCarthy are settling in to the charming seaside village of Shamrock Cove on the west coast of Ireland. Lizzie throws herself into organizing a book festival and mystery writer Mercy even agrees to come out of her bookish hidey-hole to do get involved. But then the star author for the event is found dead. James Brandt was killed by a falling bookshelf in his own cottage… The local detective is not convinced by Mercy’s suspicion of murder but when someone else turns up dead, the police cannot ignore it.

When Holly White's fiancé cancels their Christmas Eve wedding with less than two weeks to go, Holly heads home with a broken heart. Lucky for her, home in historic Mistletoe, Maine is magical during Christmastime - exactly what the doctor prescribed. Except her plan to drown her troubles in peppermints and snickerdoodles is upended when local grouch and president of the Mistletoe Historical Society, Margaret Fenwick, is bludgeoned and left in the sleigh display at Reindeer Games, Holly's family tree farm.

Siobhán O'Sullivan's hopes for a quiet Irish Christmas are dashed when the local Santa turns up dead in a carnival dunk tank of hot cocoa. Now instead of hunting down holiday gifts, she's pursuing a heartless killer. Seems the dead Santa was no angel either, stealing neighborhood dogs to guide his sleigh. But was it his holiday antics - or worse - that led to his death by chocolate?

Megan is excited to show her visiting American friends the best of Ireland. A dead body in a holy well, however, was not on her list. The victim is Seamus Nolan, nicknamed "the Irish Druid" for his controversial efforts to rewild his country estate. The local police seem all-too-willing to write off his death as an accident. But Megan's instincts say not so fast. Megan knows that sleuthing cost her her last girlfriend. Maybe solving another murder will help her make peace with that.

When a body turns up in the dumpster behind Caroline's Cupcakes, Holly White is horrified to learn her best friend, Caroline, is the main suspect. Everyone in town, including Mistletoe, Maine's sheriff, saw Caroline fighting with the victim on the night of his death. Worse, Caroline's fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, a custom-designed marble rolling pin. Now, just 10 days before Christmas, Holly's up to her jingle bells in holiday shenanigans and in desperate need of a miracle.

It’s Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, and Viva Durant, the young sleuth, is taking a break from mystery solving to celebrate with her family. Paired up with her precocious pal Reece, Viva’s too busy navigating the daunting world of debutantes too get caught up in the unsolved cases of Crescent City. But the festivities take a sharp turn when there’s a blackout at the Mardi Gras Ball—and Viva’s grandmother goes missing!

This December in Kilbane, if you’re planning to warm up with a cuppa tea at Naomi’s Bistro, you may have a bit of a wait - the entire O’Sullivan brood has gone off to West Cork to spend the holidays with brother James’s fiancée Elise’s family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. Siobhán is so happy for James and Elise, but she’s also quietly disappointed that she must put her own wedding to fellow garda Macdara Flannery on hold. Then a cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a 90-pound harp in a local concert hall.

Quinn and Fiona get an unexpected surprise when Dermot Brennan, the local Garda from the little town of Ballyfrannen, stops by. The grave of a young woman named Hannah Byrnes, who died in the 1930s, has been robbed. He shows them a picture of Hannah, or Pans as she was called, standing in front of the farm that Quinn’s family has owned for generations. Is she a long-dead relative? Soon they’re told a man has been murdered. Are the two events connected? They suspect they are, especially after learning the man had been searching for the ring stolen from Pans’s grave. Events spiral out ...

After 15 years away, Kate Hamilton never expected to end up back in her hometown of Asheboro, Maryland, full time. And she definitely didn't expect to be leading the charge of recreating the town as a Victorian village and tourist attraction. The Barton mansion, meant to be the centerpiece of the Victorian village, has proven to be a veritable goldmine of documents about the town's 19th-century history, and Kate is convinced the papers hide something of value. Then a dead body turns up in the town library - mere hours before the documents were meant to arrive there themselves.

Three years after they narrowly escaped the IRA’s worst punishment for informing, Northern Irish sisters Tessa and Marian Daly have built a new life in Dublin with their young children. Though Tessa is haunted by the abrupt and violent end to her old life, she does her best to immerse herself in the joys of Finn’s childhood and the rhythms of her new job at The Irish Observer. It’s a small island, though, and just as quickly as they disappeared, figures from the sisters’ past surface to drag them back into the conflict.

Anne has been bitten by the travel bug. Again. Would gallivanting around Ireland heal her aching heart after the passing of her father? Does a little black cloud follow her to this Celtic destination? Her Irish roots are tingling as she and her husband Peter, along with a group of friends, journey to the Emerald Isle, the homeland of some of Anne’s recently discovered relatives and ancestors. Filled with likable characters, humor, culinary eye-openers, folklore and fascinating history, a side story is evolving that threatens with Anne and her Irish cousins. Discoveries are revealed as ...

Young Michael, an illegal immigrant escaping the troubles in Northern Ireland is strong and fearless and clever, just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city, squatters live furtively in ruined buildings, and hundreds are murdered each month.

Quinn finds herself in an embarrassing situation when an old high school classmate who now lives in Ireland contacts her about their twenty-fifth high school reunion. Unfortunately, Quinn has gilded the lily as to her and her best friend, Fiona’s, accomplishments. Now, she will have to come clean. To make matters worse, Adler James, or Addie as she likes to be called, was one of the popular girls in high school. Soon after their meeting, Addie is accused of murder. Quinn believes she’s innocent and decides to do some investigating with the help of her cousin Charlotte. Quinn quickly ...

Quinn is in the middle of a midlife crisis. Forty-six, divorced, and having recently walked away from her practice as a psychologist, she fears her best years are behind her. Fiona, Quinn's best friend since childhood, has a plan to get her out of her rut — a trip to Ireland! Quinn loves everything about Ireland: the people, the culture, the scenery and especially a little town called Ballyfrannen. On a whim, she decides to move there, and Fiona is eager to do the same. At first, things seem to be working out perfectly. They find a charming little stone cottage to buy and set about ...

In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Natalie's Bistro has always been warm and welcoming. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhan O'Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It's been a rough year for the O'Sullivans, but it's about to get rougher.

Snow is a rarity in Maura Donovan's small village in County Cork, Ireland, so she wasn't sure what to expect when a major snowstorm rolled in around Sullivan's pub. But now she's stranded in a bar full of patrons - and a suspected killer in a long-ago murder. Maura's been in Ireland less than a year and hasn't heard about the decades-old unsolved crime that took place nearby, let alone the infamous suspect, Diane Caldwell.

Any wedding is a big deal in the small village of Kilbane - even more so when the bride is a famous fashion model. It's also good for business; Siobhan O'Sullivan's bistro will be catering the three-day affair. When the drunken best man is disinvited, Siobhan's own beau, Macdara, gladly steps in. But finding the original best man murdered in the woods casts a pall over the nuptials. And when a second member of the wedding party is poisoned, Macdara goes from being best man to prime suspect.