More Mystery in the Irish Vein

Bowen, Rhys. In Dublin's Fair City ($6.99).
Blazing a trail for independent women in the 20th Century, PI Molly Murphy was always slated to return to her roots and the murder scene she fled for the immigrant-laden ship to NY. Working for an actress aboard passage back to Eire lands Molly in another murder and in a bittersweet reunion with her family. Tell Me, Pretty Maiden
($24 Signed) moves Molly's life in New York on as she and her fiancé, suspended police captain Daniel Sullivan, stumble over a nearly frozen young woman in a wintry Central Park snowdrift….

Bruen, Ken. Cross (St Martins $24).
Galway's Jack Taylor, burned out by and with years of boozing, decides to cut his losses and move to America, but first he agrees to help Ridge, a lesbian cop, solve horrible crimes involving crucifixion and burning. Confronting Jack is a girl who has let grief over the hit-and-run death of her religious fanatic mother evolve into a quest for biblical-style vengeance. "Bruen riffs on different meanings and implications of the word cross throughout, and his insights into pain, loss and Irishness are unforgettable." So is the Jack Taylor series beginning with The Guards ($13), a 2003 Hardboiled Crime Pick.

Greeley, Andrew M. Irish Tiger (Forge $25).
Nuala Anne McGrail and husband Dermot battle not just malice but what they sense is actual evil directed at a pair of passionate grandparents embarked on a second marriage. They may have to call in the (retired police)dogs to help. Irish Linen ($7.99). Greeley's The Magic Cup ($6.99) retells a medieval Irish legend.


Hughes, Declan. Price of Blood (Morrow $25)/
Father Vincent Tyrell brings Dublin PI Ed Loy scant clues to finding FX Tyrell, a prominent trainer of racehorses. Then, while working another case, Loy finds a phone number linked to FX—but it's attached to a badly beaten body. As the Leopardstown Racecourse Christmas Festival looms, Loy's lines of inquiry begin to converge into a grim, shattering picture. The Wrong Kind of Blood ($7.99) earned playwright Hughes, an ace with local color, a First Mystery Pick and 2007 Shamus Award winner; The Color of Blood ($7.99) begins when a dentist, son of a legendary doctor, hires Loy to find his difficult daughter. And no wonder she's a tiger given her wildly dysfunctional family.

McGilloway, Brian. Gallows Lane (Macmillan $34 Signed)
Gallows Lane was the road down which condemned Donegal criminals were once led. When a young woman is found beaten to death on a building site in what appears to be a sex crime, Ins. Benedict Devlin, whose beat is The Borderlands ($16) focuses on a local body-builder and steroid addict. But days later, born-again ex-con James Kerr is found nailed to a tree—crucified—after having been released from gaol and gone off home to spread the word of God. Increasingly torn between his young family and his job, Devlin is driven to solve these gruesome murders, whatever the risk….