Jenny Rose

Zesty, chatty American Claire Breslinsky visits the West of Ireland in Kelly's fourth tale of her heroine's exploits, an uneasy, crowded but entertaining mix of love story, mystery and rural Irish caricature. Stinging with the knowledge of her husband's adultery and with a photography career close to stagnant, narrator Claire is happy to escape her home in Queens to attend an aunt's funeral in County Cork, standing in for her ailing mother. Before Claire leaves, her mother informs her that Claire's beautiful, cold sister Carmela has an illegitimate daughter, Jenny Rose. Jenny grew up in the village of Bally Cashin, where Claire's family remains; she's now a defiant 17-year-old, a talented painter and a source of consternation for the adults in her path. Claire develops an instant maternal affection for Jenny Rose. She also learns to handle the stereotypically wacky Irish villagers: Seamus, the mentally retarded handyman, and Audrey, a rich woman with a pet donkey. But Claire also finds herself hunting for clues: was the explosion that killed her aunt an accident, or was it murder? To complicate matters further, Claire's old flame, the filmmaker Temple Fortune, has turned up in Cork to make a movie. Will Claire and Temple rekindle their flirtation? Claire's many nervous asides remain as endearing as ever, and her embittered, kind Irish aunts are expertly drawn. But not every character comes off so well. Temple, in particular (last seen in Kelly's Keepers of the Mill), seems meant to be a strong-willed artist, but sounds simply arrogant; it's hard to believe Claire has fallen for him. By the time the complex truth about Jenny's reputation, Claire's aunt's death and other chicanery crests in a bit of mild violence, readers may wish Kelly had pruned her narrative of extraneous people and subplots, concentrating instead on her charming main characters (Sept.)