False Mermaid: A Novel (Nora Gavin, #3)

False Mermaid: A Novel by Erin Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the series and we finally get the full story of Nora’s sister’s tragic death. Nora has long suspected her brother-in-law Peter Hallett as the vicious murderer, as has the lead detective, but Peter was too crafty to be caught. Now he intends to marry again and Nora is desperate to prevent any further tragedy both to his bride to be, and her young neice, Elizabeth. While Nora is certain that she loves Cormac McGuire, she cannot move further in that relationship until the murderer of her sister is brought to justice and her neice is safe.

Nora finds some clues her sister left hidden in a secret place they shared as children and she and the detective are convinced that the murder of her sister was not his first. Clues turn up in other places also and yet, they don’t lead all the way back to Peter Hallett, but Nora is sure he is the source of the evil.

In the meantime, Cormac McGuire has returned to an isolated village where his long-estranged father has been staying near Port na Rón. He meets Roz, a friend of his father’s and becomes interested in the mysterious disappearance of Mary Heaney who was reported to be a selkie who returned to the sea. While walking on the headlands, he finds the abandoned fishing hut where Mary was supposed to have lived and upon searching it, he finds a single shoe. Who runs away with only one shoe? Eventually, he and Nora are reunited and discover the truth of the old legend.

I really enjoyed this series and look forward to more books by this author.


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Lake of Sorrows (Nora Gavin, #2)

Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. The setting of Irish bogs is different from so many mysteries and adds a bit of interest because of the discoveries surrounding the prehistoric bog bodies found there. Forensic pathologist, Nora Gavin, has been asked to help with the discovery of another bog body who seems to have been killed in a prehistoric ritual “triple death.” When a more recent body turns up with the same “triple death” characteristics, the mystery widens. Is the ritual still being practiced?

-Archaeologist, Cormac MacGuire, is on the scene again too and he has the cottage where his mentor has lived when working on the bogs. Nora was invited to stay there and the two continue their relationship, but not without trials. Cormac knows that he loves Nora, but Nora is being pulled back to her home in the United States by the tragic and brutal death of her sister. When the identity of the second body is discovered, a cast of local characters are introduced and the link to their ancient roots is probed. As always, the colorful world of Irish music and dancing also adds to the feeling of the book

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Haunted Ground: A Novel

Haunted Ground: A Novel by Erin Hart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was hard to get into at first, but I really enjoyed it. The reader is deposited right into the middle of the action and, while it gives a sense of immediacy, it is hard to figure out what it going on. The story is actually two mysteries in one...there is a red haired woman's head which is found deposited in the peat bog and a real woman and her child who have been missing for over two years. The plot is interwoven and switches between forensic and historical research on the bog body and dogged detective work in the contemporary case.

Once I got into the book, I could hardly put it down. In the investigation of the bog body, the archaeologist determine that the woman was beheaded and they find a probable date for the execution from an artifact. What is really intriguing is that they contact an elderly local historian for an understanding of what was going on in that locality at the time and then they turn to an elderly woman who has preserved hundreds of old ballads, many of which were composed about local historical events. When I read this I thought of how many of the old ballads I know of that talk about real events; ballads such as Tom Dooley, Geordie, the Long Black Rifle, The Ballad of Mary Hamilton, and Mattie Groves to name a few. In the book there is a pub where the detective, the archaeologist and others keep alive the old musical instruments and ballads which reminded me of the work of Francis James Child who collected 305 ballads and saved them for posterity.


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