A Shocking Assassination

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Harrison does an even better job of integrating a fair-play mystery with the tensions of early 1920s Ireland in her second whodunit featuring the Reverend Mother Aquinas than she did in its predecessor, 2015’s A Shameful Murder. Mother Aquinas is shopping in a Cork market when a shot rings out and city engineer James Doyle drops dead. She spots journalist Sam O’Mahoney standing near Doyle’s corpse, holding a pistol. No one takes seriously the reporter’s claim that he just picked up the weapon after someone dropped it on his foot. And Sam had a strong motive for the killing: he was fired from his job after he wrote an article exposing waste and corruption in the city’s government that included allegations of wrongdoing on Doyle’s part. Sam’s distraught mother begs Mother Aquinas to exonerate him, and while the Cork convent head refuses to perjure herself, she vigorously pursues other suspects. Well-drawn characters, including a lead capable of sustaining a long series, complement the clever plot. Agent: Peter Buckman, Ampersand Agency (U.K.).

July 1, 2016
The burning and looting may have subsided, but Ireland's struggle for independence has left the city of Cork still very much on edge in the 1920s.Reverend Mother Aquinas is shopping at the English Market for eggs for her ailing gardener when she witnesses the shooting of city engineer James Doyle. The killer appears to be Sam O'Mahony, a young reporter whose mother, a stallholder in the market, struggled to educate him for a life better than hers. Sam claims that someone dropped the murder weapon on his foot, startling him enough to pick it up in the darkness when the lights went off. Although Sam's arrested, the Reverend Mother is inclined to believe in his innocence, since she saw his face after the murder and also spotted a trench-coated man, a hat hiding his face, who vanished before the police arrived. Luckily, the detective in charge is one of her former students, Inspector Patrick Cashman. Despite the evidence against Sam, Cashman has a certain amount of faith in the clever Reverend Mother and is willing to look for other suspects. Doyle had the reputation of being open to bribes during the city's rebuilding, favoring those with money and political influence over the small businessmen and poor folk who lost their homes and livelihoods. As the Republicans continue to harass the remaining English forces, another of the Reverend Mother's students, a young woman in love with Sam, plans to break him out of jail. Meanwhile, the Reverend Mother, who has highly placed connections in Cork, is using them to search for others who might have motives to kill Doyle. Her suspects cover a wide range of the social and political scale, and getting too close to the truth puts her own life in danger. The second in Harrison's historical series (A Shameful Murder, 2015) paints a fascinating picture of life in Ireland as it makes the painful transition to a republic. A vexing mystery and a clever sleuth cap it off.

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August 1, 2016
In 1923, the Irish War of Independence has ended, but tensions are still high between the IRA and the ruling government. Vast areas of Cork have been burned by the British auxiliaries, targeting anyone suspected of Republican sympathies. But it's the poor who have suffered most. So when city planner James Doyle is assassinated in the city market, the only shocking thing is that young reporter Sam O'Mahoney is accused of the crime. No one saw Sam kill Doyle, but when the shooting ended, Sam held a gun in his hand. With such damning evidence, it's clear Sam will hang for the deed. His mother pleads with Reverend Mother Aquinas, who was in the market when the shooting took place, to find the real killer. Of course, the Reverend Mother wants to help, but in a city torn by hatred and fear, can she uncover the truth? Period ambience, an intriguing look at a desperate time in Irish history, an absorbing plot, and a wise and intrepid amateur sleuth in the form of the Reverend Mother make this an engaging historical mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)