Maiden Voyage

Fine humor, a bit of Irish blarney and a ghost named Fitzwilliam Connolly are the backbone of this latest from O'Brien (Once Upon a Rose). When Maura Finnegan inherits a furniture factory and townhouse in modern Dublin, she plans to sell both and pump the money into her late father's ailing company, Finnegan's Freeze-Dried Cabbage. After visiting the factory and meeting the workers, Maura is not sure she wants to sell. Donal Byrne, an Irish entrepreneur who wants the factory, finds a loophole in the will that allows him to buy her out, but by then, his and Maura's lives have become irreversibly entwined with Fitzwilliam who'd been murdered in 1767. To free themselves, they must change the course of history. Though Maura comes off as a dispirited doormat throughout most of the book, the perky dialogue and sitcom-style humor inject just enough life into the story to keep it moving at an easy clip. (Jan.)