Irish Magic

False Mermaid [by] Erin Hart

New York; Scribner [2010]

978-1-4165-6376-1; $26.00

Nora Gavin’s sister Tríona Hallett was murdered, and suspicion has fallen on her husband, Peter Hallett, but not enough evidence has surfaced to make the accusations stick.  Nora left her home in St. Paul, MN to find peace in Ireland, but the long-sought peace has not come.  Leaving a budding romance in Ireland, she goes back home, planning to put the death of her sister behind her by solving the crime.  She contacts the detective who had worked on the case, Frank Corodva.

All that had been clear about Tríona’s death was that it had happened in a swampy place near the Mississippi River.  A new body, a woman named Natalie Russo, has been found at a place called Hidden Falls, another one of those swampy places.  Frank calls Nora in on the case, and shows her the evidence gathered with the body.  Nora contacts a friend of hers, a forensic botanist, to look at the plant matter, especially the seeds, found with both the latest body, and with Tríona.  The botanist especially notices the seeds of a plant called False Mermaid.

Nora also finds clues that she had not seen before – it’s almost a new case, as she tries to contact homeless people who may have been unwilling witnesses, but who have reasons, by their own lights, to lie.  Going to the place where Tríona’s body was found, a parking garage, she falls under the notice of security guard Truman Stark, who had stalked Tríona, and also begins to stalk Nora.  He also has secrets.

 Nora, who has been estranged from her family, primarily because, like everyone else, including her former fiancé, Mark Staunton, they did not believe Tríona’s husband could be guilty of such a heinous crime – he’s such a nice guy – comes home to her parents, discovering that her mother has come around to her way of thinking, her father, not so much yet.  Totally by accident, Nora finds a tape in her sister’s old room with her and her sister singing an old Irish song on it.  She takes it home to the carriage house she has rented, and puts it in her tape player.  Rather than hearing the song, she hears her sister’s voice – the second side of the tape.  Her sister tells her there are clues in a special hiding place, also at the parents’ house.  She takes these things to Frank.  They include newspaper clippings about other murders, bloody clothing, and notes.

Meanwhile, things are happening elsewhere.  Back in Ireland, the lover left behind, Cormac, has bought a plane ticket to come to the States to help Nora search for her sister’s killer, but he is unable to use it.  He visits his father, whom he has not seen since his childhood, and he finds out that his father has a new girlfriend, one of his colleagues from University.  Then his father has a stroke.  The girlfriend stays on with Cormac, for she is studying the lore of the selkies, the Celtic merpeople who are found when their sealskins are stolen. The father wakes briefly, and can’t remember her at all.

And closer to home, Frank is in crisis.  He dwells on a brief sexual fling that happened between him and Nora, which she doesn’t want to resume, his failures in the search for Tríona’s killer, and the death of his disabled twin brother.  He also struggles in a rather detrimental relationship with his partner.  But he is progressing, albeit slowly, on the Russo killing.

Tríona’s husband Peter, an architect, has moved to Seattle with his and Tríona’s daughter Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is a sea-lover, and is not happy that her father is taking her back to St. Paul.  Her father is preparing to marry Miranda Staunton, the sister of Nora’s former fiancé, and they are going to honeymoon in Ireland.  Nora and her parents worry about Elizabeth, and expect that she will be staying with the grandparents, while her father and his new wife are in Ireland.  But when the time comes, Elizabeth is virtually kidnapped to Ireland.

Elizabeth has been teased for reasons she doesn’t understand, but when she sneaks a peak at her dad’s computer, she discovers that her mother was murdered.  She knew nothing about this, except that her mother was dead – her Aunt Nora had explained that.  But now she knows her father might be guilty.  When they get to Dublin, she runs away, going to the address she had for her Aunt in Dublin.  The friends there phone Nora and she flies right out to get her.  She takes her to Cormac’s.

The many strands come together on the beach in County Donegal, where Elizabeth sees a seal quite like the one she saw off the coast in Seattle.  It would seem that the seal saves Elizabeth, at the expense of others. The selkie lore permeates the story, with songs, poetry, and quotations from Irish texts, making the story quite magical.  However, underneath it all, there is solid police procedure, as well as engaging characters, and a many-layered story.  Excellent, and highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Book from my Public Library.