cover image The Second Sorrowful Mystery: A Mystery

The Second Sorrowful Mystery: A Mystery

Jonathan Harrington. Write Way Publishing, $21.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-885173-37-9

A couple of years after solving the murder of his cousin Rose (in 1996's The Death of Cousin Rose) in the Irish village of Ballycara, Irish-American Danny O'Flaherty is living and working as a teacher in Dublin. A letter from his friend, parish priest Padraic O'Malley, brings Danny back to Ballycara, only to discover that the priest has disappeared. After a quick search, Danny and Father O'Malley's housekeeper, Fidelma Muldoon, find Father O'Malley dead in the church basement, peacefully laid out with a rosary in his hand. Over the protests of the local policeman, Danny insists that the priest was murdered. Given permission by the gardai, the Irish police, who are too busy to investigate, Danny starts nosing around, asking questions and chasing suspects about the countryside. As he unearths a host of old grudges against Father O'Malley, his idealistic image of his friend is quickly tarnished. Harrington's novel progresses slowly, but his prose is clean and sweet, and he conveys well the undercurrents that can lie beneath a small town's placid appearance. Fans of The Death of Cousin Rose should relish this one, as should all who like a mystery with a touch of Irish charm. (June)