Some of Us Are Looking

Starred review from July 1, 2023

There are watch parties for the night's meteor showers all over Ireland's Dingle Peninsula, and veterinarian Dimpna Wilde has plans to meet with friends, including Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien. A local man, Chris Henderson, has recently complained to the Garda about a group of four people, two dogs, and a parrot in a small caravan. Then Henderson turns up dead, the victim of a hit-and-run, while Dimpna frantically tries to save two foxes who were hit by the same car. Before Dimpna can even leave her clinic, one of the women from the caravan, Brigid Sweeney, shows up in a blood-covered jacket with a wild story about a knife, a man, and a rabbit. Dimpna thinks Brigid is lying, but the next morning she finds Brigid's body tied to a tree with her hand missing and a rabbit's foot in its place. A troubled O'Brien refuses to take the lead in either murder case, but he can't let go. Dimpna, with her love of animals, is dragged deeper into the case, as O'Brien struggles to find a brutal killer. VERDICT There's a surprising conclusion in this sequel to No Strangers Here. Sarah Stewart Taylor's fans will appreciate O'Connor's dark, atmospheric Irish mystery.--Lesa Holstine

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October 1, 2023
A psychopathic killer terrorizes Ireland's Dingle Peninsula. Sgt. Barbara Neely is dealing with local Chris Henderson's complaints about a pervert he claims is watching one of the girls living in a caravan parked in the village that he's already complained about. Inspector Cormac O'Brien, who's nervously standing by, misses a chance to talk with Neely himself when he's called out to investigate disturbing quotations chalked on walls in the popular tourist town of Dingle, but Cormac's more concerned with his lapse of judgment in having sex with one of the women from the caravan and the fear that his crush, veterinarian Dimpna Wilde, will find out. When Henderson and two foxes are struck by a hit-and-run driver, Dimpna is called to help. Later that night a hysterical woman shows up at Dimpna's clinic with a slightly injured hare wrapped in a blood-soaked jacket, a bloody butcher's knife, and a wild story about someone trying to cut the animal's foot off. She is Brigid Sweeney, another of the caravan residents, which also include two mastiffs who keep breaking their chains and chasing cars. After she leaves, Cormac calls to report that someone found the caravan dogs stumbling down the road as though drunk; they are brought to the clinic for the night. Returning them the next morning, Dimpna finds Brigid's body. She's been drugged and tied to a tree; her left hand has been cut off and festooned with a rabbit's foot. Although Cormac, whose mother has just died, shouldn't be working the case after his encounter with Brigid's caravan mate, his expertise is needed to solve a crime so heinous and baffling that it has the whole area on edge. An excellent police procedural whose complex characters act out a twisty tale of hate.

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