The Death of an Irish Lover: A Peter McGarr Mystery (Peter McGarr Mysteries)

Crime runs rampant in the picturesque town of Leixleap -- and onIreland's famed River Shannon, where brazen thieves illegally harvestthe gourmet-prized eels that flourish there. But while poachingmay be something the local Eel Police division is well-equippedto handle, murder is wholly another matter.Chief Inspector Peter McGarr has been called out from Dublin to investigate a troubling double homicide. The nude body of young, pretty, and,recently married Eel Policewoman Ellen Gilday Finn has been discoveredin the bed of a hot-sheet inn -- wrapped around the equally unclothedcorpse of her much older boss, Pascal Burke. A crime of passion, perhaps, pointing to Ellen's cuckolded newly wedded husband as the perpetrator. But conflicting clues and false confessions are leading McGarrinto dangerous hidden corners where greed, corruption, IRA terror andradical, possibly deadly, environmentalism are but a few of the,dark blooms secretly nourished in the rich loam of the Irish countryside.

Beneath a moody winter sky, author Bartholomew Gill brings to life this engaging Irish fishing village, where I.R.A. thugs routinely steal eels from harvesters. A charismatic but cunning bartender clues McGarr in on the scene. The villagers all know each other's business, so gossip penetrates fact in interesting ways. McGarr weaves together fragments--observations, opinions, guesswork--and has a knack for knowing when people lie or tell less than they know. Fans of the Peter McGarr mystery series already know that they can expect a vivid portrait of contemporary Ireland, at once realistic and just far enough removed from reality to feel like a vacation. Newcomers will be happy to enter the lives of McGarr and his familiars. Death of an Irish Lover is an entertaining good time. --Kathi Inman Berens