Irish Mystery Fiction

Aurnia O’Clery believes in science, facts, and what she can see with her own eyes. And that belief has served her well over the past twenty-seven years. It sealed her off from trusting the airy-fairy tales of enchantment and powerful legends her Irish granddad spun to convince her everything would be all right. Even after her mother’s suicide. After her dad abandoned her. Growing up on the family’s horse breeding farm she learned life’s lessons the hard way: bad things happen, and the world isn’t fair. Only she secretly wishes it were.

When Detective Alana Mack arrives at Clonabee police station, in a small Irish seaside town on the outskirts of Dublin, she doesn't expect to find a distressed two-year-old girl sobbing on the floor. Abandoned in a local supermarket, the child tells them her name is Casey. All Alana and her team have to go on is a crumpled note begging for someone to look after the little girl. This mother doesn't want to be found.

It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route. Here is rehab, where Ben - the only son of a rich South Dublin banker - is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam.

Meet Jack Irish, criminal lawyer, debt collector, football lover, turf watcher, trainee cabinetmaker, and the best Australian crime character we've seen in years. When Jack receives a puzzling message from a jailed ex-client, he's too deep in misery over Fitzroy's latest loss to take much notice. Next thing Jack knows, the ex-client's dead and he's been drawn into a life-threatening investigation involving high-level corruption, dark sexual secrets, shonky property deals and murder.

What happens when your childhood nemesis turns out to be the love of your life? That’s only one of the dilemmas Sadie Rose Mayhew must face when she returns to her childhood home. Seeking a fresh start after her broken engagement, Sadie moves into the house she left behind as a teen. Neglected since the death of her grandmother, Sadie sets about putting the place back together just as surely as she’s repairing her life – the main problem at first being her next door neighbor. Sadie remembers Declan Murphy as the pesky little brother of her best friend Kathleen, the fly in the ointment...

Jack Irish - lawyer, gambler and people finder - is hunting down the villains who hijacked the winnings from his latest betting coup when he is hired by a mystery client to find missing barman Robbie Colbourne. But Robbie turns up dead of a drug overdose.

“When I rolled out of bed at the butt crack of dawn, I had no idea my day would start with a missing sheep and end with a dead dude in a crotchless mankini". Armed with her newly issued private investigator’s license, Maggie Doyle is on the case...of a sheep that went missing 22 years ago. When she trips over a dead body on the first day of the investigation, Maggie realizes there’s more to this cold case than a fight over lamb chops.

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the police service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan's past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

Abigail and her brother Benjamin have always been close. To celebrate his birthday, Abigail hires a grand old house and gathers their friends together for a murder mystery party. As the night goes on, they drink too much and play games. Relationships are forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses someone they shouldn’t, someone else’s heart is broken. In the morning, everyone wakes up – except Benjamin.

A telepathic warning from the pilot enables flight attendant Susan Maxwell to survive a terrifying plane crash. In the wake of the disaster, she takes charge until the inevitable breakdown occurs and her mind is filled with the voices of other passengers. When she contacts her fellow survivors, she learns that they too have been hearing voices, and that a greater destiny awaits them. Seamus Quinn found the woman of his dreams when he rescued Susan and her friends, but her initial reaction left him with no hope of ever seeing her again—until she shows up on the dock asking to hire his boat...

10am: A mother rushes for a train after dropping her daughter at school but is reported missing when she doesn't return to pick her up. 2.47pm: The same train causes the death of a young woman; her body bound and placed on the tracks. When Detective Alana Mack discovers the missing mother has vanished from the same train that claimed the life of the young woman, she fears the worst. A killer is on the loose, targeting women and leaving their broken bodies scattered across Dublin's Dart train line.

When human remains are found in a fisherman's crab pot, Detective Alana Mack faces her toughest case yet. As she unravels a complex web of genetic links, Alana becomes the target of a seemingly random attack, leaving her injured and reliant on her ex-husband for help.

Fi McKinnery is full of nerves as the gorgeous Mae B (aka her best friend Robyn) takes to the stage for her debut at drag club TRASH, but Mae B is dazzling…that is until local queen Eve lampoons her performance and ruins the show. So when Eve turns up dead later that night, face down in the gutter of a rain-soaked Dublin street, the timing seems awfully suspicious… The police are quick to rule Eve’s death an accident, but Fi is convinced it was foul play.

From the award-winning author of The Broken Shore. Mickey Franklin was funny and clever and dangerous. Not anymore, now that a mysterious and beautiful sculptor named Sarah Longmore is accused of shooting him five times. Jack Irish - gambler, cook and cabinetmaker, finder of people who don't want to be found - gets the job of hunting for clues that might save her.

Scrapped Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop hardly have time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered in her studio just after the St. Patrick's Day parade - and one of the Crop's own members is the prime suspect. Vera's dance studio may have suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the croppers know she's not a vengeful murderer. Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that only add question marks to Emily's murder.

WHAT IF THE GODS WERE REAL?That’s the question Dr. Dan Kotler—Archaeologist and FBI Consultant—finds himself struggling to answer after a Druidic tomb is unearthed in the mountains of Egypt. Why did the Druids build a site in Egypt, thousands of years ago? And what implications does this site have for human history? Kotler’s not the only one looking for answers. The Alihat Iadida—the New Gods—is a powerful cult that wants control of the site, and of the bronze sword that Kotler himself helped to discover, twenty years earlier. That sword could be the key to unlocking the ...

Sparkle McCavity, young drag queen and employee of Miss Merkin, is missing, presumed kidnapped or even worse. Naturally, Merkin turns to reluctant sleuth and friend to the community Fi for help, but clues and suspects are worryingly thin on the ground—and the drag king Stan the Man is proving somewhat distracting. When Merkin’s niece is then found murdered, spiked on a light pole in nightclub TRASH, it becomes clear that Fi’s friends are in danger. Again.

April in Florida and Benedicta (Ben) O'Keeffe is enjoying balmy temperatures during the last few days of a six month stint with a US law firm. A week later, she returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. The town is abuzz with excitement, but it starts to rain, causing the cyclists to postpone the start of their event. The rain doesn't stop—it becomes relentless, torrential. In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap, where a body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle.

Fifteen of Ireland's finest writers collaborated on this murder mystery that involves searching for the only manuscript of an unpublished novel by James Joyce. Raucous, raunchy, and completely hilarious, Yeats Is Dead! is a diabolically entertaining mulligan stew of a novel. James Joyce would be proud.

In the idyllic Irish village of Ballywick, Shayla Murphy is living her dream. With her charming fiancé Seamus by her side, she's just a week away from the grand opening of the Eyerloch Castle Hotel—a high-class haven she's been tasked with managing. Just when the finishing touches are being made, unexpected visitors in the form of the richest family in Australia descend upon the not-yet-open hotel, seeking luxurious accommodations. When a member of the visiting family turns up dead, the grand opening is the least of Shayla's worries.