Death at Whitewater Church

July 1, 2018
A solicitor can't help but dig in a small Irish town when unidentified remains are found on the grounds of a local church.Though she's no detective, Benedicta O'Keeffe has a way of nosing herself into situations--or maybe it's more a matter of being at the right place at the right time. In her capacity as a solicitor, she's helping sell Inishowen's Whitewater Church when she stumbles on unburied remains loose in one of the crypts. Ben has no idea who the remains could be, but she reports the incident to her kind-of-friend Sgt. Tom Molloy, though Molloy is clear the interaction is business and that Ben is to keep out of any investigation. Ben is too new in town to have a stake in the remains, but the rest of Inishowen is filled with rumors that the body belongs to Conor Devitt, who mysteriously vanished the morning that was to see him wed to Lisa McCauley. Six years after Conor disappeared, his brother Danny became a bit unhinged, and now he shows up at Ben's office requesting her professional services while in a state too disturbed to convey what seems to be the problem or which services he needs. Ben is also approached by Conor's former fiancee, Lisa, who's just returned from her honeymoon and wants to have Conor officially declared dead so she can start her new life in peace. While Ben wants to help Danny and Lisa, she's distracted by the arrival of a forensic pathologist, who coincidentally knows the secrets of Ben's own dramatic past. Ben came to Inishowen because it was the furthest she could get from Dublin and the troubling death of her younger sister, and the arrival of the pathologist scares Ben into thinking, like the Whitewater remains, her own secrets may not stay buried.Writing with Agatha Christie in mind, Carter draws her heroine as curious, if bordering on interfering, and her debut's pacing as she explores the story encourages readers to seek the same connections she does.

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July 30, 2018
Solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe, the intelligent, determined heroine of Irish author Carter’s atmospheric first novel and series launch, runs the “most northerly solicitor’s office in Ireland” on the Inishowen Peninsula. “Last legal advice before Iceland,” she thinks she should put on her notepaper. A routine job takes her to inspect a deconsecrated church, where, in the crypt, she and the surveyor accompanying her spot a human skeleton. When word gets out of this grisly find, many believe that the remains belong to a local man who disappeared on his wedding day six years earlier. Sgt. Tom Molloy, a friend of Ben’s, investigates. That a barred gate locked the victim in suggests foul play. A chance encounter with the pathologist who conducts the postmortem triggers painful memories of a personal loss that Ben suffered eight years before. A potential romance with Tom provides further complications. The complex, slow-moving plot can be challenging to follow at times, but readers will feel the effort is well worth it. Agent: Kerry Glencorse, Susanna Lea Assoc.

September 1, 2018

Solicitor Benedicta "Ben" O'Keefe moves to Ireland's Inishowen coast in an attempt to escape her family history. Her latest case, though, lands her right in the midst of another family's problems. She's with a surveyor at the deconsecrated Whitewater Church when they stumble over a crypt and find a skeleton inside. Everyone in town guesses the remains belong to Conor Devitt, who disappeared six years earlier on his wedding day. Ben, who admits she's nosy, is a confidante for many in town. But stories and relationships don't make sense to Ben. Then Conor's brother dies in a car accident. Ben's friendship with Sergeant Tom Molloy is in jeopardy when a pathologist who knows Ben's family secrets is called in to investigate the skeleton and the second death. While this debut mystery won awards in the author's native Ireland, the protagonist/narrator actually has little to do with the story's solution, although she's on the scene. That may prove unsatisfactory for some mystery readers. The awkward, complex characters fit perfectly into the atmospheric, melancholy novel with a strong sense of place. VERDICT Fans of Ann Cleeves's "Shetland Island" mysteries and Lara Dearnan's "Guernsey Island" books will appreciate this account revealing another isolated, secretive community.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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