Irish Mist

Sexy, foul-mouthed singer Nuala Anne McGrail and her deferential husband, Dermot Michael Coyne, are back in another emerald-hued mystery (after Irish Whiskey). Since Nuala Anne's folk-singing career has taken off, Dermot has quit the commodities exchange in favor of writing and fawning over his wife; so when her new fame leads to an invitation to sing in her homeland's Irish Aid concert, he comes along. On the flight over from Chicago to Dublin, the fey Nuala Anne has disturbing visions of a young woman in a burning castle and of a man assassinated on his way to Mass. Dermot's investigation reveals that the man was Kevin O'Higgins, successor to Irish rebel leader Michael Collins. Dermot continues delving into the history of Irish-British troubles (documents are quoted verbatim) to reveal a series of secret scandals and affairs. That's intriguing material, but the novel's momentum is halted time and again by Nuala Anne's preoccupation with her psychic flashes and with Dermot's determination to relieve his bride's obsession with beating him at golf by giving her an orgasm. In the end, Greeley's latest proves a confounding mix of sentimental Irish politics and puerile sexuality, of appeal only to those with a yen for anything Greeley or Eire green. (Mar.)