Maggie D’arcy, a Long Island homicide detective is called to Ireland to assist on a case of a missing woman. It’s Maggie’s second visit to Ireland, the first being when she went 23 years before to look for her cousin, Erin Flaherty, who had moved there and had then disappeared. Back then, and currently, the Irish police believed that the cases were related to other missing woman cases where there was a possible two-week window to find the person before she was murdered.
Maggie goes with many conflicting feelings: leaving her young daughter at home, re-opening old wounds, fear for her uncle’s health as Erin’s case is again highlighted, seeing an Irishman who has never left her heart, and being the outsider who is not officially part of the investigation. When she meets up with Roly Byrne, the detective from the case years ago, she meets up with a friend with whom she is now on equal footing after a successful career in homicide. She works with Roly and with his new partner, Detective Garda Katya Grzeskiewicz, Griz for short (and for ease).
Maggie spends time between places in Dublin and south in the Wicklow Mountains where Erin was thought to have disappeared and where the current woman went missing while out hiking. Searching through old case files, following new leads, retracing steps in Dublin and around Glenmalure, throwing around new ideas, setting up timelines and psychological profiles, Maggie keeps getting a little bit closer to understanding both her cousin and suspects, but she and Roly and Griz all wonder if it will be in time to save the current victim.
This is a really substantial, atmospheric addition to procedural-type mysteries. The streets of Dublin and the wild beauty of the Wicklow Mountains are wonderfully described here in a story that alternates between 1993 and young Maggie and 2016 and the older, wiser, more hardened detective. The result is a carefully rendered portrayal of a case that builds with suspense, surprises, and suppositions. There are a couple great "oh no" moments and a brilliant twist with believable characters and unsavory secrets.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Macmillan for an advance copy.
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