Many a Twist

November 6, 2017
In Connolly’s smart sixth County Cork mystery (after 2017’s Cruel Winter), John Byrne, one of the new American owners of a high-class hotel at Crann Mor, and his management team meet with American transplant Maura Donovan at Sullivan’s, the pub she owns in the Irish village of Leap, to discuss arranging for hotel guests to visit the pub. Hours later, John is found dead, having fractured his skull after apparently falling down a hill on the hotel grounds. During the subsequent police investigation, Helen Jenkins, the marketing manager of John’s company, asks to speak to Maura. When Helen confesses to Maura that she’s her long-lost mother, Maura can’t sort out her feelings about the woman who abandoned her more than 20 years earlier, but she also can’t ignore the bond. For her mother’s sake, Maura, who’s been involved in solving crimes before, decides to look into the suspicious circumstances of John’s death. Connolly vividly evokes rural Ireland, and her characters seem like real human beings trying their best to navigate their lives. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds.

November 15, 2017
A pub owner has much to teach the police in County Cork.Maura Donovan left her life in Boston when the canny grandmother who raised her arranged for her to inherit Sullivan's, a pub in her former hometown of Leap. The pub's finances have been improved by the addition of some music that attracts the attention of a group of investors who have bought the Crann Mor Hotel and are scouting the area for places their clientele might enjoy visiting. Although Maura has no wish to tart up Sullivan's, she meets with John Byrne, one of the hotel's new owners, and Helen Jenkins, who handles infrastructure for the company. Maura is unwilling to make changes but is willing to listen to advice from her staff, especially Mick, her oddly unambitious barman. When Byrne's battered body is found at the foot of a hill in the hotel garden, Maura's friends in the local police (Cruel Winter, 2017, etc.) are interested in her thoughts. These take a dramatic turn when Helen reveals that she's the mother who left Maura behind more than 20 years earlier. Maura's far from certain that she wants a relationship with the woman who abandoned her. Meantime, she's learned more about Mick's past from his grandmother, who knows that they love each other. People in Leap have such long memories that talking to them reveals a great deal about Byrne's past and his connection with the area. A big-city police officer recently reassigned to Leap is pushing to solve the case, but his brash manner is far less effective than Maura's quiet persistence, which ultimately achieves a resolution of sorts to her problems.This laid-back mystery combines plenty of puzzles with a strong feeling for life in small-town Ireland.

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