Irish Mystery

In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the police service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan's past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

Lured by her aunt’s promise of a restful Irish vacation, Maggie agrees to help out at the Movie Theater Café in exchange for bed and board. Things are looking up - until the most hated woman on Whisper Island is poisoned at the café. With her aunt as the prime suspect, Maggie and her rock-hard muffins are hurled into the murder investigation.

After mom's death, it's just me and my dad running the family pub - and I've got big plans for it once dad retires. But everything changes when he shows up in the middle of the night. Daniel Kelly. When he tells me he's back for good, I have half a mind to throw his arrogantly handsome arse out and send him back to Dublin. But his visit isn't just a coincidence. No, it's very much intentional. Because our parents have been conspiring, and it seems that Daniel is back...for me.

After returning from her father-in-law’s funeral in Florida, Lucy can almost hear the death knell of her part-time reporter job the instant she meets new hire Rob Callahan. He’s young, ambitious, and positioning himself to become the Pennysaver’s next star reporter. Adding insult to injury, Lucy only gets assigned the local St. Patrick’s Day parade once Rob passes on the story. But before beer flows and bagpipes sound, Rob becomes suspected of destroying more than other people’s careers.

After four murders take place in the very heart of Dublin City, newly appointed Detective Peter Alfson and convicted hacker Cassandra Roland take the lead on the investigation. A serial killer named the Leopard Moth is leaving a trail of bodies along with the same book at every scene. Their one suspect in custody brings doubt after a fifth body is found. Detective Alfson finds himself in a race against time to uncover the meaning behind the murders and the killer's end game.

Archaeological evidence in the Lost City of Kyphiz shows the Greek gods in South America near the end of the Minoan-Mycenaean era of Greece - an era which ended with the mysterious disappearance of the Mycenaean civilization in Europe triggering a Dark Age, sometime around 1100 BC. The Minoan-Mycenaean elites were the Greek gods themselves.

The competition for best whiskey in Ireland will be a publicity bonanza for the winner, and that means there are celebrities involved-like boxer Angus McConal and Megan's friend Niamh, an up-and-coming actress who's teamed up with Megan's uncle, the retired Sligo harbormaster. But rivalries and revelries turn out to be a bad blend when McConal dies at a whiskey tasting. Megan promised her girlfriend she'd quit her amateur sleuthing, but with Niamh and her uncle as suspects, she's over a barrel.

Scrapped Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop hardly have time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered in her studio just after the St. Patrick's Day parade - and one of the Crop's own members is the prime suspect. Vera's dance studio may have suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the croppers know she's not a vengeful murderer. Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that only add question marks to Emily's murder.

American-born Cherise Williams believes herself to be heir to an old Irish earldom, and she's come to Dublin to claim her heritage. Under the circumstances, Megan's boss Olga at Leprechaun Limos has no qualms about overcharging the brash Texas transplant for their services. Megan chauffeurs Cherise to the ancient St. Michan's Church, where the woman intends to get a wee little DNA sample from the mummified earls - much to the horror of the priest. But before she can desecrate the dead, Cherise Williams is murdered - just as her three daughters arrive to also claim their birthright.

This Christmas time, things are not all fine. For there's trouble at Devlin's Department Store, and it all seems to centre on the first floor. Where strangely, one can hear a cuckoo chime...T'is the season to be jolly. And Old Tom must crack the case, before he can hang up his holly.

A relaxing sailing trip on his day off becomes anything but for DSI Mick Hays when a body is found at sea. The coastguard pluck the corpse from the ocean with ease, but establishing the dead man's identity won't be straightforward. And when pathology indicates he was murdered, Hays' partner DI Maureen Lyons is put in charge of the investigation. Good forensics and a nose for trouble lead Lyons to a small hamlet in an isolated part of the coast. But the locals, who are running a smooth bootleg liquor operation, are none too forthcoming with information.

The mystery of the modern thriller pervades the twists in the plot of this remarkable Victorian novel about the disappearance of a young man and the lady who is haunted by more than one terrible secret.

In the idyllic Irish village of Ballywick, Shayla Murphy is living her dream. With her charming fiancé Seamus by her side, she's just a week away from the grand opening of the Eyerloch Castle Hotel—a high-class haven she's been tasked with managing. Just when the finishing touches are being made, unexpected visitors in the form of the richest family in Australia descend upon the not-yet-open hotel, seeking luxurious accommodations. When a member of the visiting family turns up dead, the grand opening is the least of Shayla's worries.

Crookedwood, quiet Irish midlands town, place of secrets, past and present. Sarah left it behind years ago for life in the city, where she's now a rising star of the Dublin culinary scene. She's home to help her mother sell the family farm. One evening, while out walking in the nearby woods, Sarah is chased by a man and his vicious dog, narrowly escaping injury. In the days to follow—as painful memories resurface of another dark night in the woods years before—further unsettling events unfold, and Sarah becomes convinced that she is under threat.

When Mariana Rivas arrives from Spain to work as an au pair in the Dublin home of the Mac Converys, Garda Inspector Fionn Mac Convery tries to seduce her. In the course of avoiding Fionn, Mariana experiences the mean streets of Dublin city and meets some of the characters who, in his ambitious rise in the police force, have been damaged by him.

Eddie Sutherland is dead. Normally, Detective Wes O'Brien wouldn't care about another dead drug dealer, but he may just be the man who killed him. Thrown off the force and under investigation, Wes is called upon privately to look into a cheating spouse case.

A wave lifts the stern of the boat, rigging groans in protest and a crash comes from down below, as the wails of the cargo rise above the howl of the storm. It's a wild Christmas Day on the rugged Northern Irish coast. But there's no time for turkey and pud with the family for Detectives Harvey and Birch. DS Aaron Birch leans into the wind and driving sleet. Thick, scudding clouds make the streets of Lisburn almost as dark as early evening. Then he gets the tip-off. Smugglers coming into a boatyard in Bangor.

Sue Hearn is planting a herb garden on the site of her grandfather's old greenhouse. She's spent the morning digging up all sorts of odds and ends already. But she doesn't expect this grisly find. A skull. Could it be the remains of her mother, Monica, who went missing thirty years ago? Sue's father, in hospital with dementia, insinuates that a police officer was involved in her mother's disappearance. But can he be trusted?

Sparkle McCavity, young drag queen and employee of Miss Merkin, is missing, presumed kidnapped or even worse. Naturally, Merkin turns to reluctant sleuth and friend to the community Fi for help, but clues and suspects are worryingly thin on the ground—and the drag king Stan the Man is proving somewhat distracting. When Merkin’s niece is then found murdered, spiked on a light pole in nightclub TRASH, it becomes clear that Fi’s friends are in danger. Again.