Who doesn’t like an old-fashioned, atmospheric mystery set in a remote part of the Irish countryside? If this describes you and you’re a fan of authors such as Louise Penny, Lisa Gardner or the immortal Agatha Christie, Murder at Greysbridge (Oceanview Publishing) by Andrea Carter could stir your soul like a perfectly drawn Guinness in a Donegal pub.
Greysbridge is the fourth novel focusing on the exploits, relationships and conflicts of female solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keefe. Carter calls her series the Inishowen Mysteries, named after a peninsula in Donegal County that occupies Ireland’s northernmost point — an atmospheric setting for a classic whodunit if there ever was one. She knows this territory well. The Irish author lived for a time in real-life Inishowen working as a solicitor. Readers can feel comfortable starting their journeys into Inishowen with this book, even if they haven’t read the earlier ones in the series.
As the story opens, it’s an unusually hot summer in western Ireland as O’Keefe prepares for the wedding of her friend Leah while contemplating a difficult decision: should she accept a tempting job offer from an American law firm?
The nuptials are scheduled for the newly restored Greysbridge Hotel, a sprawling, partially restored resort that descendants of the original family owners hope to revive. The guests soon discover the building and surrounding grounds include winding hallways, hidden rooms, possible ghosts and family secrets buried in an isolated cemetery plot.
Still, it’s a beautiful location for an Irish, late-summer wedding until a young American who is staying at the hotel drowns in full view of the assembled guests. Is it an accident or something more sinister? Then a second death, likely a poisoning, occurs in a hotel room, and the story is off to the races as O’Keefe tries to decipher those mysteries and new ones that appear.
One of those puzzles involves the disappearance of two young runaways to a nearby, remote island. O’Keefe reluctantly ferries to the location to help with the search and finds herself spending more time with a police investigator, Sgt. Tom Molloy, as they’re trapped on the island during a violent storm. That makes things really complicated for O’Keefe, because Molloy is her former love interest and keeps secrets of his own.
O’Keefe and Molloy defensively set aside their feelings to focus on the case, and their suspicions grow that the complicated, sordid history of Greysbridge intertwines with that of the islanders. They question quite an array of interesting guests, isolated islanders, hotel owners and an oddball gardener, all of whom could have stepped out of a Christie mystery. Indeed, there are so many characters with various backstories and potential agendas that it becomes a challenge to keep everyone straight, but readers will want to make the effort.
Efforts are underway to adapt the books for television, so you might ponder what actor will do the best job of playing the complex, subtle role of Ben O’Keefe. And if Guinness isn’t your thing, you might want a good Irish whiskey in your hand for the page-turning final chapters. As the story moves to a climax, you’ll be rooting for O’Keefe to not only solve the crime but also resolve her own conflicts to get to a happier place.
