Beyond Absolution

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.)

August 1, 2017
Set in the 1920s in teeming, tumultuous Cork, Ireland, where Republicans continue to wage a bloody war against the government, Harrison's latest continues her successful Irish historical mystery series featuring Reverend Mother Aquinas. When the Reverend Mother learns that Father Dominic, the gentlest of religious men and the brother of the Reverend Mother's childhood friend, has been brutally murdered, she's determined to use every one of her diverse contactsfrom former pupils to doctors to policemen and even members of the Republican Armyto find out who killed him. There are plenty of puzzling clues: a mysterious woman spotted hovering near but never entering Father Dominic's confessional booth, a young boy who claims he's seen a treasure house of gold and silver underneath the city, an earlier sighting of Father Dominic in a pricey local antiques shop, and a local musical group that may have been cover for a much darker purpose. Fine historical ambience, well-drawn characters, a twist-filled plot, and a surprising conclusion make this one a good choice for all crime collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2017
The murder of a beloved priest sends shock waves through Cork.Easy as it is to blame atrocities in 1925 Ireland on the Republicans still fighting for a united nation, the Reverend Mother Aquinas is quite sure they had nothing to do with the murder of Father Dominic. Reverend Mother grew up in a wealthy family and had many acquaintances among the protestant Anglo-Irish, including Dominic and his brother, Lawrence, who both converted to Catholicism and became priests. When Dominic's found dead in the confessional, stabbed through the ear, a former pupil of hers, Inspector Patrick Cashman, is assigned the case. Dr. Scher, the police surgeon who also treats the nuns, had seen Father Dominic in an antiques shop, where the priest seemed disturbed by a rare Japanese statue of a hawk. A talk with her cousin leads the Reverend Mother to identify the hawk as one of a pair they'd seen in a house they'd often visited as young women, a house the Republicans supposedly burned to the ground. One of the people spotted in the church before Dominic's murder was Peter Doyle, the antiques shop's Protestant owner. The Reverend Mother suspects Doyle and his friends are stealing valuable antiques and covering their tracks by burning down the houses where they were displayed. But why would they murder the priest, who had no way of proving the hawk was stolen? Loyal Republican Eileen MacSweeney, another former pupil who sings in a theater group Doyle and his friends founded, is more than willing to snoop on behalf of the clever nun. The Reverend Mother feeds information to Cashman, whose superiors are eager to blame the Republicans. Her broad acquaintance within every social class in Ireland gives her insights denied the police. After Doyle's found murdered in the same manner, the Reverend Mother faces some dauntingly difficult decisions. Beneath the entertaining historical tidbits, Harrison (A Shocking Assassination, 2016, etc.) provides a puzzle that will challenge the most dedicated mystery reader.

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Starred review from June 12, 2017
Why would Father Dominic Alleyn, on the last day of his life, be troubled by seeing a slightly damaged Japanese ceramic hawk in an antique shop? That’s one of the questions Reverend Mother Aquinas must answer in Harrison’s stellar third whodunit set in 1920s Ireland (after 2016’s A Shocking Assassination). Prior Lawrence has the misfortune to find the body of his brother, Dominic, who’s an old friend of the reverend mother, in his brother’s confessional stall in Cork’s Holy Trinity Church. To the reverend mother’s added shock, the police doctor informs her that Dominic was murdered by someone who stabbed him through the ear with a narrow blade. Her former student and friend Insp. Patrick Cashman, of the recently established civic guards, leads the investigation, which involves identifying and interviewing all those known to have sought confession from the dead man on the day he was killed. Harrison cleverly integrates classic whodunit detection with the tense politics of the period, as Irish nationalists continue to struggle for independence. Agent: Peter Buckman, Ampersand Agency (U.K.).