Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Sometimes, the shortest books are the most difficult to read emotionally. That’s probably one reason Claire Keegan’s novel Small Things Like These won the 2022 Orwell Prize for fiction earlier in the week. I picked up the book when I read an article in...

The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor

It’s always a joy to return to Ireland with Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Maggie D’arcy. The Drowning Sea is the third in the series. Maggie D’arcy resigned as a homicide detective in Long Island. Now, she and her teenage daughter, Lily, are spending two...

The Becoming by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts’ The Becoming is one of the best books I read this year. However, I can’t recommend the second book in her Dragon Heart Legacy trilogy unless you’ve read the first one, The Awakening. Breen Siobhan Kelly’s relationships and life in...

The Keening by Anne Emery

I’ll be honest. As much as I enjoy Irish history, Anne Emery’s historical mystery, The Keening was slow going. However, readers who appreciate Cora Harrison’s Burren mysteries, set in 16th century Ireland, might want to try this mystery with two...

Murder in an Orchard Cemetery by Cora Harrison

Cora Harrison’s eighth Reverend Mother mystery, Murder in an Orchard Cemetery is a book that fits my taste in Irish history. Admittedly, a lot of people won’t find this leisurely paced historical mystery as intriguing as I did. Harrison brings together the...