The sudden death of a young novice nun raises a series of puzzling questions in the latest Reverend Mother historical mystery.
The Reverend Mother is delighted with her new entrant to the convent. Young Sister Gertrude is well-educated, has worked for an accountant and has an appealing sense of humour. But one autumn morning, Sister Gertrude is found dead inside a small wooden shed, just beside the river. Surely a young nun could not die from alcohol poisoning?
But when the Reverend Mother delves more deeply into Sister Gertrude’s background, she finds some puzzling anomalies. Why did the young nun not delay her entry to the convent until after her sister’s wedding? Is it a coincidence that her father died of a similar illness not long before? And could there be a link between Sister Gertrude’s death and the gunpowder explosion on Spike Island? The Reverend Mother must find the answers to these questions if she is to safeguard her community from suspicions of murder.
“An admirable heroine, vivid characters, and an inventive plot, combined with intriguing insights into life in Ireland at a crucial juncture for the Troubles, make for a captivating read”—Booklist
“Harrison’s fifth engrossing historical mystery brings to life the turbulence and politics of 1920s Ireland. Reverend Mother will appeal to admirers of Ellis Peter’s ‘Brother Cadfael’ mysteries, while Conor Brady’s fans will appreciate the Irish history”—Library Journal Starred Review
In 1925 Cork, Ireland, a horrifying find in an old trunk leads an unlikely sleuth to further discoveries scarcely less shocking.
A smelly trunk arrives from the auction house of Mr. Hayes, a gift to the school from the Reverend Mother’s cousin Lucy. Instead of the expected old school books, it contains the dead body of Mr. Mulcahy, a wealthy tanner, packed with a bunch of decomposing skins.
Mulcahy’s son Fred arrives on the scene just after the Reverend Mother opens the trunk; he was evidently expecting a different trunk, with a shipment of guns for the Irish Republican Army.
Although he’s appalled to see his dead father, he’s so far from mourning the loss that he shoots the body through the heart before taking off.
The Reverend Mother calls Inspector Patrick Cashman, a former pupil whom she and medical examiner Dr. Scher have helped before (A Shocking Assassination, 2016, etc.).
Poor, clever Eileen, another former pupil, who works for a printer and is also involved with the Republicans, snatches Fred away from the police on her motorbike and barely escapes trouble herself when Fred tries to flee on a fishing trawler.
The Reverend Mother meanwhile fills Patrick in on the Mulcahy family, a large group with a long-suffering wife and mother, who were just moving into a brand new house, selling the old one, and moving the tanning yard when Mulcahy was killed.
The oldest daughter, Susan, wanted to become a doctor, but her father was determined to marry her instead to his business acquaintance Richard McCarthy, the executor of his will, who claims that they’ll need to sell the new house to support the family. Susan, who helped keep the books, is certain there’s plenty of money.
With help from Eileen, she sets out to prove that McCarthy and a new lawyer are hiding it.
There are so many suspects, from Mulcahy’s family members to his business enemies, that the sleuths can only pray that following the money will lead to the killer.
The competent and exacting detective’s contacts and knowledge of Cork again help her solve a difficult mystery in fine fashion.
“A gripping plot, memorable characters, and authentic period ambience make for an engaging read”—Booklist
“Harrison does a fine job mixing the explosive politics of 1920’s Ireland with details of ordinary life”—Publishers Weekly
Reverend Mother Aquinas must discover who murdered a much-loved priest in the third of this compelling new Irish historical mystery series.
Ireland. 1925. Pierced through to the brain, the dead body of the priest was found wedged into the small, dark confessional cubicle. Loved by all, Father Dominic had lent a listening ear to sinners of all kinds: gunmen and policemen; prostitutes and nuns; prosperous businessmen and petty swindlers; tradesmen and thieves. But who knelt behind the metal grid and inserted a deadly weapon into that listening ear?
The Reverend Mother Aquinas can do nothing for Father Dominic, but for the sake of his brother, her old friend Father Lawrence, she is determined to find out who killed him, and why.
“Fine historical ambience, well-drawn characters, a twist-filled plot, and a surprising conclusion make this one a good choice for all crime collections“–Booklist
“Harrison cleverly integrates classic whodunit detection with the tense politics of the period, as Irish nationalists continue to struggle for independence“–Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Ireland. 1924. Reverend Mother Aquinas is buying buttered eggs in the Cork city market at the very moment when the city engineer, James Doyle, is assassinated. Although no one saw the actual killing, a young reporter named Sam O’Mahony is found standing close to the body, a pistol in his hand, and is arrested and charged.
Following a desperate appeal from Sam’s mother, convinced of her son’s innocence, the Reverend Mother investigates – and, in this turbulent, war-torn city, uncovers several other key suspects. Could there be a Republican connection? Was James Doyle’s death linked to his corrupt practices in the rebuilding of the city, burned down more than a year ago by the Black and Tans? Cork is a city divided by wealth and by politics: this murder seems to have links to both.
Reviews
Harrison does an even better job of integrating a fair-play mystery with the tensions of early 1920s Ireland… Well-drawn characters, including a lead capable of sustaining a long series, complement the clever plot – Publishers Weekly starred review
Although it is never a good idea to learn history from fiction, one of the many gifts of historically-based fiction is its ability to inspire curiosity about a past time or place and to evoke a sense of that world and its people. I knew only a ghost of a smidgeon about modern Irish history, but this mystery quickly drew me into the time, its tensions and disasters. The strife between various factions is not only background, but an integral part of the murder – or is it an assassination? – that sets everything in motion. Exceptionally well-drawn characters, a rich setting teeming with possible motives, twists I did not see coming, and a satisfying if heart-wrenching ending made this mystery set in 1924 Ireland a great read. – Debora Ross, Good Reads
“Period ambience, an absorbing plot, and a wise and intrepid amateur sleuth in the form of the Reverend Mother make this an engaging historical mystery.”–Booklist
(It can be seen that the will of God is not the cause of things.)
It was Reverend Mother Aquinas who found the body of the dead girl. It lay wedged within the gateway to the convent chapel at St Mary’s of the Isle, jettisoned by the flood waters. For a fanciful moment she had almost imagined that it was a mermaid swept up from the sea. The long silver gown gleamed beneath the gas lamp, wet as the skin of a salmon, and the streams of soaked curls were red-brown just like the crinkled carrageen seaweed she had gathered from the windswept beaches of Ballycotton when she was a child. Her heart beating fast, the Reverend Mother unlocked the gate and looked down at the sightless blue eyes that stared up from beneath a wide, high brow, at the blanched, soaked flesh of the cheeks and knew that there was nothing that she could do for the girl. She bent over, touched the stone-cold face and then with a hand that trembled slightly she signed the forehead with a small cross. The Reverend Mother had seen death many times in her long life, but in the young she still found it was almost unbearable.
“Harrison combines a savvy detective and a setting fraught with intrigue and tension for another winner“–Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“Mistaken identities, strange twists, an intelligent and likable heroine, and a tragic tale of sex, greed, and betrayal–make sure your historical mystery readers get this one on their radar“–Booklist Starred Review
“Recommend for Dicey Deere fans or readers who enjoy M.C. Beaton and Carol Higgins Clark“–Library Journal
“What unfolds is a superbly crafted mystery that makes fine use of its locale and the diverse characters living there: the moneyed elite who attend the annual Merchants’ Ball, lecturers from the University College, and the energetic young people who fight for Ireland’s future by joining the illegal Republican Party.“–Sarah Johnson, book review editor for the Historical Novels Review.
“This is a terrific read, carrying you along on the ride. Highly recommended.“–Historical Novel Society
This book is inspired by my interest, not just in Charles Dickens and his friends, but also in Ellen Ternan whose name is so connected with his. So, who was Ellen Ternan? A huge majority of the English-speaking population of the world would probably say that she was an actress who became Charles Dickens’ mistress, but I am convinced that she was not his mistress, but his daughter.
Oddly, I originally came to this opinion from what one might call the internal evidence. I was rereading A Tale of Two Cities and for the first time was suddenly struck by the enormous force of the emotion in the scenes where an adult daughter and father meet for the first time. And Lucy in A Tale of Two Cities was physically almost the exact image of Ellen Ternan: ‘A short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, a puzzled expression and a pair of blue eyes . . .’
Dickens, I’ve always felt, writes poorly about love between a man and a woman – Lucy’s relationship with Charles Darnay is cardboard sentimentality – but he writes with great intensity about this relationship of a father and newly-found daughter. Dickens, himself, states that the idea of writing A Tale of Two Cities came to him in 1857 which was the year when he first took over the role of protector of the Ternan family, Mrs Frances Ternan and her three girls, Fanny, Maria and Ellen.
‘Young enough to be his daughter’ say various reproving voices of biographers.
But could Ellen Ternan, in fact, be his daughter? Do dates make it possible, or even feasible?
Ellen was the youngest of three children. Her mother, Frances, married Thomas Ternan in 1834 but he died of syphilis in 1846. The link between Frances Ternan and Dickens was an actor called Macready. He was one of Dickens’ best friends and a very good friend and patron of Frances Ternan who had acted with Macready since her earliest years playing opposite to him in many Shakespearean plays – Ophelia to his Hamlet when she was younger and then Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother in the same play many years later.
In May 1837 Catherine Dickens suffered a miscarriage after the tragic and sudden death of her seventeen-year-old sister, Mary Hogarth. Dickens took his wife to Broadstairs seaside to recuperate but he himself travelled up and down to London, staying overnight in order to visit the theatre and see his friend Macready. He would certainly have met Frances Ternan at that time.
The following January Dickens resolved to keep a diary. He went to Yorkshire to investigate schools and began to write Nicholas Nickleby, which is suffused with a sense of theatre throughout. The Crummles theatrical family, along with that memorable character ‘The Infant Phenomenon’ (the two elder Ternan girls had been on the stage since the age of two), has now become a household name, but it probably shows the influence that the Ternan family had upon him. Dickens writes in his diary about attending a banquet in honour of the actor Macready and it is very likely that the Ternans were there, also. The interesting thing is that three pages have been torn out of this diary in January 1838. Could it have been something about Frances Ternan, which in view of later events, he decided to get rid of?
Ellen Lawless Ternan was born in March 1839, so where was Dickens nine months earlier, in June 1838? On 6 March 1838 Catherine, Mrs Dickens, gave birth to her second child Mamie and was plunged for months into that condition of physical debility and post-natal depression which had afflicted her after the birth of her first child, Charley.
This was possibly a time when Dickens, as a very vital and active young man, could potentially stray. Mrs Dickens was recuperating in the countryside in Twickenham where Dickens spent all his weekends, but he was up and down to the city of London on an almost daily basis. There are many recorded meetings with the actor Macready during the next few months and doubtless there would have been opportunities to meet Frances Ternan, a gifted actress from early childhood and an extremely beautiful woman, married to a bad-tempered, untalented failure of a man, who was now ill with syphilis. Dickens was an obsessive theatre fan, went two or three times a week. During that winter, in Drury Lane Theatre, Mrs Ternan had played Desdemona to the famous Kean’s Othello, while her husband played Iago – to extremely poor reviews. Dickens undoubtedly saw these performances and would have been sorry for Frances Ternan.
On 29 October 1839 Kate Macready Dickens was born, six months after the birth of Ellen. Portraits, I feel, show a resemblance between them, especially the ears and the nose. Kate was supposed physically and otherwise to resemble her father more than any of his other children.
In 1846 Thomas Ternan died of syphilis when Ellen was only six. He had been confined to a hospital for the insane for many years previously.
In 1857 Ellen Lawless Ternan was eighteen when she and her sister played parts, with Dickens, in the play The Frozen Deep which took place at the end of August 1857. At the end of the performance, Dickens gave Ellen Ternan a piece of jewellery – a brooch or bracelet. This came to Mrs Dickens’ notice and there was a huge row. Kate Dickens said her father ordered his wife to see Mrs Ternan – and this is odd, because it almost appears as though Dickens wants to make recompense to Mrs Ternan as well as to care for Ellen Ternan and to take her from the life on the stage which she hated.
In May 1858 Dickens decided to separate from his wife. He was an emotional man, but his fits of fury at the imputation that he was having an affair with Ellen Ternan seem excessive – if she were really his mistress. However, if she were his daughter, this would be more understandable, would make his almost hysterical behaviour much more reasonable. In my opinion, he behaved like a man who has been much wronged.
In 1858 Dickens set Ellen Ternan up in an establishment with her mother. It is now that he began writing A Tale of Two Cities – a story about a father and daughter who meet for the first time when the daughter is eighteen years old. Later he took a house for Ellen and her mother, in Slough and then in France. At the railway crash at Staplehurst, both Mrs Ternan and Ellen were present. In fact, right through the Dickens and Ellen years, Mrs Ternan appears to have been a constant presence.
In 1859 A Tale of Two Cities was published. It is a rather over-sentimentalized portrait of fatherly and daughterly love where the heroine bears a strong physical resemblance to Ellen Ternan.
Interestingly, it appears as if several people were in on the secret of the relationship. To one lady friend (a highly respectable Victorian lady, according to the biographer Peter Ackroyd) Dickens wrote that ‘Nelly would be distressed and embarrassed if she knew that you knew the secret of her history’. (NB not her position – her history. I think there is a significant difference.) Another lady, Mrs Fields – an extremely strait-laced American lady – wrote rhapsodically to Dickens about how he was going to see his beloved. (She was unlikely to refer to a mistress in those terms). She also hoped that despite ‘mistakes that he had made in the past’ (perhaps having an affair as a young man) that he would now be happy.
One of things that struck me, and partially led me to this conclusion, was that Peter Ackroyd, a meticulous and tireless biographer, was totally puzzled about the relationship that Dickens had with Ellen Ternan and eventually came to the conclusion that it was a non-consummated relationship – something he deemed as very odd! Interestingly enough, he didn’t take that sideways step, which I have taken; less odd, I think, than the guess that a highly sexed man like Dickens would live with a pretty young girl in a ‘non-consummated’ relationship.
No, I think Dickens was the father, not the lover, of Ellen Ternan, and didn’t want to destroy his relationship with his public (and Queen Victoria) by confessing to the affair with an actress. He also didn’t want to attract shame on to Mrs Ternan, but otherwise wanted to make it up to his illegitimate daughter. It is somewhat overlooked, I feel, that in making provision for Ellen, he also cared for Mrs Ternan.
I am fairly sure that he confided the secret to his sister-in-law, Georgina and to his daughters, Kate and Mamie before he died. They summoned Ellen to his deathbed. Afterwards they were very friendly with Ellen Ternan who went on to make a good marriage with a clergyman. She had children with him, although she was then in her late thirties which makes one wonder why, if she were Dickens’ mistress, she did not have children by him. Despite much research no one has ever found any evidence that there was a child.
Henry Dickens, Dickens’ youngest son, had children who went to a birthday party held for Ellen’s children, which, once again, makes me think that the Dickens family all knew of the relationship. All that nonsense about Kate saying that there was a child and it died is just hearsay. It was quoted ten years after Kate’s death by a friend, an elderly woman (suffering from the early stages of dementia), who wrote, with the help of a journalist, a book called Dickens and Daughter and perhaps wanted to beef it up; probably she knew nothing as Dickens’ children and sister-in-law guarded his reputation with great care. Moreover, a scandal may have injured the huge sales of his books in this Victorian era.
Of course, no one will ever know for sure, but I do think that it is feasible that Dickens was Ellen Ternan’s father.
I would be so interested to know what others think of that and would love to hear from you on my website: www.coraharrison.com
SUMMER OF SECRETS by Cora Harrison is published by Severn House
An inspired premise and compelling characters make the third in this series the best to date.
Harrison continues the Victorian adventures of unlikely sleuths Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.
The more celebrated Dickens has taken Collins under his wing and procured an invitation for him to a house party at the estate of Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, whose literary work leaves Collins cold. The staid party is shaken up when Lady Rosina Bulwer-Lytton arrives after a long separation, part of which she’s spent in one of those posh lunatic asylums where unhappy men hide their troublesome wives.
Collins finds Rosina charming and takes her part against Bulwer-Lytton and his loathsome secretary, Tom Maguire, whom Rosina easily bests when he tries to get rid of her. Meanwhile, Dickens’ son Charley has fallen for Nelly, the lovely young actress who’s been hired along with her mother, the well-known actress Frances Jarman, to help stage one of Bulwer-Lytton’s plays, with guests playing the other parts.
Taking Bulwer-Lytton’s place at the dress rehearsal, Maguire is shot dead. Was he the intended victim, or was it a case of mistaken identity? Dickens and an estate dog he befriended saved Nelly from an attempted rape by Maguire that gives Nelly one motive and Rosina another. Resolved to protect them both for different reasons, Dickens and Collins cleverly misdirect the police as they seek a satisfactory solution.
An inspired premise and compelling characters make the third in this series the best to date.
The Montgomery Murder, the first of the London Murder Mysteries series, was shortlisted for four awards: the Stockton Children’s Book of the Year Award; the East Sussex Children’s Book of the Year Award; the London Borough of Hillingdon Children’s Book of the Year Award, and the Manchester Children’s Book of the Year Award
In the mean streets of Victorian London lies the body of wealthy Mr Montgomery.
The police must move fast to catch his killer. They need an insider, someone streetwise, cunning, bold . . . someone like Alfie.
When Inspector Denham makes him an offer he can’t refuse, it’s up to Alfie and his gang to sift clues, shadow suspects and negotiate a sinister world of double-dealing and danger — until the shocking truth is revealed…
The Montgomery Murder
The first two chapters of The Montgomery Murder
Chapter 1
Alfie’s Gang
It was a foggy day in late November. The gas lamps shone like cloudy balls of light and the horses slipped on the wet streets. Well-dressed Londoners wrapped mufflers over noses and mouths as they rushed home to supper in their warm houses. And four ragged boys, followed by a large dog, emerged from a filthy cellar below the pavement.
The plan had been made!
*
Alfie grinned and the tight knot of fear in his stomach relaxed — Mutsy always made him laugh. His brother Sammy had just hit the high note of the song and the big, hairy dog joined in immediately, sitting on his back legs with his two front paws in the begging position, his nose lifted towards the sky and howling like a high-pitched fiddle! A crowd was beginning to gather — they always did when Sammy and Mutsy sang.
On this dark and foggy evening, Alfie was relying on dog and boy being the focus of all attention. He had set everything up very carefully. Alfie’s brother Sammy, with Mutsy beside him, were standing on the corner just outside the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden while Alfie himself was about a hundred yards away. Jack and Tom, their two cousins, were in place, also.
“He’s blind, poor little boy”, said a woman’s voice. And then Alfie could hear the chink of pennies into the tin plate at Sammy’s feet. Now was the moment to put his plan into action. The shoppers, hurrying home, were gathered around Sammy and Mutsy; nobody would be looking at him.
And then he had a piece of good luck — there was a loud pop, a hissing sound and a smell of gas floated down on the fog. One of the gas lamps had gone out. Great! Slowly and quietly Alfie moved until he was underneath that lamppost. This would be a good place to lurk unseen. The lamplighter had already shouldered his ladder and gone home, so the corner between Bow Street and Russell Street would now stay dark till morning.
Alfie’s stomach was already empty, but it tightened even more with tension. This was his plan and he was the gang leader. It had to succeed. He licked his lips as he glanced around. Jack, his twelve-year-old cousin, was in his place, across the road, just ready to grab the horse’s head.
Eleven-year-old Tom, Jack’s brother, was almost invisible, lurking in the shadowed doorway of a watchmaker. He would have his peashooter ready. Alfie could rely on him. Tom and Jack both had steady nerves and Tom never missed a shot.
And then, the moment that they were waiting for! The horse-drawn van turned from Russell Street into Bow Street. Suddenly a mouth-watering smell of newly baked bread floated above the sour, bitter, coal-smoke stench of the fog. Alfie braced himself. He saw the horse rear and kick –Tom had done his task with the peashooter. Alfie didn’t even look towards Jack — his cousin could always handle horses. Instantly he dashed to the back of the van.
It was all working. He could hear Jack’s voice shouting: “it s all right Mister, I’ve a hold of him.” Now Alfie had his hand in the back of the van. The loaf was so soft and warm that he could almost taste it. Tom was coming towards him. Between them, with luck, they would be able to snatch enough bread to last them for the next few days. No alarm was shouted; the crowd continued to listen as Sammy broke into his comic song, ‘The Catsmeat Man‘.
But then Alfie’s luck ran out. A hand was on his shoulder. A gruff voice, –“you come along with me, lad” –navy blue uniform — number 22 on the collar The cops had nabbed him.
Chapter 2
The Dead Body
Alfie did not struggle. There was no point. He tried a gentle wriggle; perhaps he could leave his jacket behind, but it was no good. The policeman had a firm grip of one arm and was dragging him along the street. Alfie knew where they were going.
The Bow Street Police Station was next door to Bow Street Magistrates Court. He would probably be in front of the bench in less than half an hour. What would be the sentence? Most likely, three months’ hard labour — that was the usual.
He had never been in prison himself, but he knew many boys who had. Hard labour meant breaking stones; running on the treadmill or sewing mailbags for twelve hours of the day and no one was allowed to say a word to any other prisoner. That was the worst of all, a boy called Bob Larkin had told Alfie.
And what would happen to Sammy, his blind brother, and to their two cousins who shared his cellar? Without Alfie, they might all starve. He was the one who organised everything, who had seen the comic possibilities in Mutsy with his large paws and his fringe hanging over his eyes, and the one, who, until this moment, had kept them all out of trouble.
“In you go.” The blue light outside Bow Street Police Station gleamed through the fog. “Bet you’ve stolen that muffler, you little thief.” The constable jerked at the scarf around his neck. “And that waistcoat, too!” By now they were inside and Alfie was pushed into an office. His bare feet felt the smoothness of the tiled floor.
Carefully he removed his cap and smoothed down his dark curls. “It doesn’t matter about looking poor and having ragged trousers as long as you are polite.” It seemed like yesterday that his mother had said that, but she had been dead for two years.
*
“Caught stealing a loaf of bread from the evening delivery van, Inspector. Make a bow to Inspector Denham, you young ruffian. Shall I take him into the court; the magistrates are still sitting?”
“Yes”, said the inspector absent-mindedly. He was studying some papers on his desk, turning them over and knitting his dark bushy eyebrows over them. Then he waved his hand. “No!” he said abruptly. “Just leave him with me, Constable, will you.”
What did he want, wondered Alfie, looking at the inspector as the door closed behind the constable. He was a small man to be in charge of all of these burly constables that could be seen every day, patrolling Bow Street and the Covent Garden area. Quick and decisive, though! He never hesitated long over any piece of paper; looked down it, then put it into one of three neat piles on the desk and went on to the next.
The room was cold in spite of the coal fire burning in a small metal grate. Alfie’s sharp eyes noticed that one of the sash cords was broken and the window was sagging down on one side, allowing the freezing damp air to seep into the little room. He stayed very still; looking attentively at the inspector while the man shuffled his papers,. When he looked up, Alfie saw that he had a pair of sharp eyes, as black as Alfie’s own.
“Live around here, do you?” The inspector’s tone was casual.
“That’s right”, Alfie wasn’t going to give any of his gang away.
“Know the St Giles district?” This was unexpected, but welcome. St Giles, a district of tumbledown, wood-built houses, where a single room could house up to four families, was a good five-minute walk from Alfie’s cellar on Bow Street itself. Alfie agreed quickly that he did know St Giles.
“Come with me.” Inspector Denham was on his feet. He opened a door at the back of the office and led the way down a long, dimly lit corridor. There was a damp coldness in the air and a strange smell.
“In here.” Inspector Denham took a large key from the bunch at his waist and opened a door. The room was almost in darkness; there was just one small, high window. It showed as a pale rectangle on the wall, but gave little light. Inspector Denham clanged the door closed behind them and walked confidently forward. Alfie followed him, his heart thumping.
“Ah, that’s better.” There was a hiss and a sudden smell of gas; the noise of a match striking and then the flame sprang up. Alfie took a step backwards and then recovered himself and stepped forward again.
The room was a small one, but it had three occupants. All were lying on high narrow iron beds, covered by a sheet. All were very still. Alfie sniffed the air and knew that the smell was death. He had smelled it often enough. He swallowed once and felt the sweat break out on the palms of his hands.
Why had the inspector brought him in here with these dead men?
I have read the six previous installments in this series and, from the outset, I must say that this is my favorite yet—the Reverend Mother plays Clue with her family!
The Reverend Mother’s wealthy widow cousin, Charlotte Hendrick, is not exactly beloved by her other cousins. Charlotte asks these seven to meet in her expansive Cork home for an overnight family get-together. The purpose for the meeting: each of them is to present a case for being named as the sole beneficiary of Charlotte’s will. This is a shock since each of the cousins had anticipated a one-seventh share of Charlotte’s estate. Certainly the Reverend Mother’s school could use that money.
During the night, Charlotte is murdered, the victim of an attack with half of a deadly sharpened craft scissor owned by her live-in companion, a cousin who would be left poor and homeless without her share of the estate. This cousin appears at first to have every reason to kill Charlotte—but did she? Or was it one of the riverfront rioters who murdered a man that night?
This puzzle mystery is a sheer delight, and the Reverend Mother’s critical thinking hat is always on straight. The cousins are each drawn with a fine pen, and Harrison’s typical cast of characters, set in an early 20th-century Cork where poverty and violence are common, lends yet other layers of detail and flavor. Even if you haven’t read the others in the series, I would advise you to jump in here! Highly recommended.
“Fans of historical puzzle mysteries will be delighted.”
Cora Harrison. Severn, $28.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8924-9
Set in early 1920s Cork, Ireland, Harrison’s seventh Reverend Mother whodunit (after 2018’s Murder at the Queen’s Old Castle) stands out as her trickiest yet.
For many years, wealthy Charlotte Hendrick has declared that her estate will be divided equally among her seven nearest relatives, including her cousin the Reverend Mother, who intends to donate anything she might receive to her convent.
Then Mrs. Hendrick’s attorney informs the seven heirs that she has had a change of heart—his client intends to disinherit six of them and leave everything to the one who proves him- or herself most worthy. The seven agree to make their best case to Mrs. Hendrick at her house, spend the night, and hear her announce her choice the next morning. In the middle of the night, someone slashes Mrs. Hendrick’s throat in her bedroom.
Harrison adroitly combines the Reverend Mother’s clever investigation with a sympathetic portrayal of the plight of Cork’s poor.
Fans of historical puzzle mysteries will be delighted.
Agent: Peter Buckman/Ampersand Agency (U.K.). (July)
A classic golden-age mystery whose shocking
solution will appeal to fans of Christie and Sayers.
Money is the root of all evil, according to the
Reverend Mother – but is it the motive for her cousin’s murder?
Wealthy widow Charlotte Hendrick had always
promised that her riches would be divided equally between her seven closest
relatives when she died. Now she has changed her mind and summoned her nearest
and dearest, including her cousin, the Reverend Mother, to her substantial home
on Bachelor’s Quay to inform them of her decision. As Mrs Hendrick’s relatives
desperately make their case to retain a share of her wealth, riots break out on
the quays outside as the flood waters rise …
The following morning, a body is discovered in the master bedroom, its throat cut. Could there be a connection to the riots of the night before – or does the killer lie closer to home? In her efforts to uncover the truth, the Reverend Mother unearths a tale of greed, cruelty, forbidden passion … and cold-blooded malice.
Net galley reviews
Meredith R, Reviewer 5 stars
This is book 7 in the Reverend Mother series, but it easily
works as a standalone.
In the middle of the night, wealthy Charlotte Hendricks has
her throat slit. While it’s possible that the killer is an outsider, the book
has the feel of an Agatha Christie-ish locked-door mystery. There are plenty of
interesting suspects. So who is it?
THE SUSPECTS
It could be . . .
Julie Clancy, the long-suffering unpaid companion/servant of
her cousin Charlotte, will be destitute and homeless . . .
Lucy is financially secure, but she would do anything to
help her daughters be safe, secure, and spoiled with lovely things. But does
anything include murder . . .?
Claude’s pub/club is almost bankrupt . . .
Brenda wants to restore her husband’s wine business . . .
Florence is the orphaned niece of Brenda. She has grand
dreams of touring Russia and Europe to study art. But travel is expensive . . .
Professor Hendrick is Charlotte’s favorite. He plans to do
archaeological research into the Viking influence in their area. Everyone
expects that she will leave all the money to him, but what if she changes her
mind? She might live another decade or more . . .
And the bedroom window is open, with a rope hanging down the
side of the house. After all, that night, violent men protested against this
hated landlord’s house while the guests pitched their ideas. Could the killer
have come from the outside?
THE DETECTIVE(S)
Even the Reverend Mother has a motive: that money would help
build houses for the destitute she sees each day. But from the start, we know she is an upright
character who won’t stoop to murder. The police investigator, Patrick, is one
of her former students and he allows her to assist him in the murder
investigation because of her level head and observant behavior.
While the Reverend Mother is clearly the heroine of the
story, I have to give Patrick his dues. He investigates every possible solution
and refuses to allow social class or money to influence his behavior, even when
pressured by his supervisor. I liked him a great deal.
I also liked Eileen, a university student, newspaper writer,
and former IRA member who has been helped by the Reverend Mother. Her keen eye
for details and lively personality are helpful in the investigation. (I
“shipped” her and Patrick. I strongly suspect that the Reverend
Mother finds the idea amusing, too. These two need to be in a romantic
relationship.)
Reverend Mother won my sympathy on page one with her
discomfort at a committee meeting dealing with the slum clearance in Cork.
She’s horrified by the statistics of how many families live in this unlivable
slum. I admired her willingness to work in these conditions, given her advanced
age and the feeling of futility that often accompanies the fight against
poverty.
THE VICTIM
Most of the committee members are less than sympathetic.
These people claim to care about the poor, but it’s obvious that they don’t.
They use churchy language to justify their idiotic and unchristian attitudes
toward others. And no one is more guilty of this than the Reverend Mother’s
cousin, the reviled landlord Charlotte Hendricks.
Charlotte is a victim you’ll love to hate. The woman is
despicable even before she shows up on the page, and even more so when she
deigns to make an appearance and disparage all except the professor’s ideas. So
when she dies, well, no one’s exactly grieving. (Except the Reverend Mother,
who does say the prayers for the dead for the woman.)
THE SETTING
The tension is thick throughout this book. Floods threaten
to overrun the Quay and damage the crumbling slum houses. A Viking exhibition
turns into a drunken protest against poverty. The IRA shows up, much to witness
Eileen’s horror. I was almost breathless as Eileen described the scene,
especially when violence broke out.
Cora Harrison captures post-independent Ireland in all its
complexities. Freedom from England hasn’t brought all the happiness and
prosperity that the rebels promised. The gap between the wealthy and poor grows
larger every year. Even those sympathetic to the poor don’t know what to do.
And the poverty is heartbreaking.
Yet there are glimmers of goodness in this squalor.
Patrick’s insistence on an impartial investigation. Eileen’s courage. A city
developer’s passion for building new homes for those in the slums. And when
eight children return home from school to find their widowed mother has died in
childbirth, the Reverend Mother helps them find new homes. Neighbors who have
next to nothing generously take in these orphans. Their generosity stands in
contrast to the wealthy’s tight-fisted control.
THE SOLUTION
The book’s ending satisfied me. Oddly, this suspect had
briefly flitted through my mind, but the author deftly bounced me around with
other possible solutions. Even 95% of the way through the book, I didn’t know
the ending to this whodunit. Cora Harrison knows how to build a well-constructed
plot!
RECOMMENDED for historical mystery fans, any mystery fans,
and anyone interested in 1920s Ireland.
I received a copy of this book from Severn House and
Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
(Note: This review will appear on my blog on July 6, 2020.)
Amy O, Librarian 5 stars
The city of Cork, Ireland, in the 1920s plays a major role
in this newest volume in Cora Harrison’s Reverend Mother series.
A house party given by
Reverend Mother’s cousin to determine which relative will inherit her
fortune ends in murder on a stormy night that floods the city’s quays, whips
up violence against slumlords and highlights the plight of spinsters
dependent on the kindness of relatives.
All the regulars of the series appear: Mother Superior’s
former students Eileen, subsidizing her university education as a newspaper
reporter, and Patrick, who leads the murder investigation; Dr. Sher and
childhood friend Lucy.
The solution is a real surprise.
Kathleen Carrow I, Reviewer 5 stars
Huge thanks to Severn House, Cora Harrison, #NetGalley for
this advance copy of #Death of prominent Citizen. I adore this series,
Reverend Mother Mystery #7, and found myself unable to put this book down,
except to sleep. The period detail and the characters are so entrancing to
me, not the least as details I know happened to my ancestors are unfolded.
What a terrible time for all but the upper class citizens at this time, the
immediate aftermath of the Irish Civil War.
“Money is the root of all evil, according to the
Reverend Mother – but is it the motive for her cousin’s murder?”
Wealthy Charlotte Hendrick, first cousin to the Reverend
Mother and 6 others, was not a warm character as well as being a slum
landlord. She decides to change her will and exclude 6 of her cousins and
invites them to her mansion to “present their cases” on what they
would do with an inheritance. The evening of the presentation falls on a
night of riots on the nearby quays and in the morning Reverend Mother finds
her cousin deceased with her throat cut.
Was this an outside murder related to the landlord riots
or was it a distraught relative who did not want to be disinherited.?Reverend
Mother, Inspector Patrick Cashman with his Sergeant Joe and Dr. Scher spend
the following week finding the murderer. Of course Reverend Mother figures it
out and it was a completely unexpected ending- but VERY satisfactory! Love
this series.
Joyce F, Reviewer
224 pages
5 stars
Very wealthy Charlotte Hendrick changes her mind about her
will. Instead of leaving equal shares to her seven closest relatives, she
decides she is going to invite them all to her home to have them plead their
cases for the money and the “winner” will get it all. This, of course, upsets
the relatives, one of whom is the Reverend Mother.
They all attend an uncomfortable evening in which each
person pleads their case.
The Reverend Mother is awakened during the night by a
noise and in the morning Charlotte Hendrick is found dead with her throat
cut. Inspector Patrick Cashman is called to the scene. Immediately, Patrick
and his Sergeant Joe begin their interviews of the still present relatives.
Mrs. Hendrick was unpopular with her tenants. She was a slumlord who had
little respect or concern about her tenants. She didn’t care about the sad
conditions of the homes and did very little to care for their upkeep. Did one
of the tenants murder her? Or, was it one of the disappointed relatives?
The ending of this book took me completely by surprise.
This is perhaps my most favorite book of Ms. Harrison’s
Reverend Mother series. It is well written and well thought-out. I truly
enjoyed this book. I really like the level-headed Reverend Mother and she is
still as sharp as a tack for a woman of her mature years. I like Patrick and
Joe as well. However, Eileen drives me a little crazy. She picks some bad men
friends and seems to make some pretty uninformed decisions. But she is young
yet…
I want to thank NetGalley and Severn House for forwarding
to me a copy of this very great book for me to read, enjoy and review.
Jennifer C, Reviewer Four stars
‘This is a strange business, isn’t it?’
Ireland, in the 1920s.
Charlotte Hendrick is a wealthy widow, living in a substantial home on
Bachelor’s Quay in Cork. She’s always
said that her wealth will be divided equally between her seven closest
relatives when she dies. But she’s
changed her mind. Her relatives,
including the Reverend Mother, are summoned to her home. Mrs Hendrick wants each of her relatives to
make a case for why they should be the sole beneficiary of her will. The person she adjudges the winner will
inherit it all.
And so, after an uncomfortable evening during which
different family members make their pitch, the guests retire for the
night. In the meantime, there are
riots on the quays outside as recent flood waters rise.
The next morning, Charlotte Hendrick is found dead. Who killed her? Was her murder connected to the riots on
the quay? And what impact might her
murder have on her will?
Inspector Patrick Cashman is called to the scene. And just after he starts speaking to those
in the house, Mrs Hendrick’s solicitor arrives.
Although this is the seventh novel in the Reverend Mother
series, it is the first of the series I’ve read. It can definitely be read as a
standalone. There is no shortage of suspects:
there are seven people who stood to benefit from Mrs Hendrick’s estate as
well as numerous tenants to whom she was an indifferent slumlord.
Set in post-independent Ireland, this is a tense and
engaging story. The contrast between wealth and poverty, heartbreaking but
hamstrung efforts to replace slums with new housing. I didn’t work out who killed Mrs Hendrick
until the end.
I’ve read quite a number of Ms Harrison’s novels over the
years (piecemeal, from different series as I can lay my hands on them). I’ve enjoyed each one of them, and this is
no exception. Carefully plotted and
well written.
Highly recommended, especially to readers of historical
mystery.
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and Wilkie Collins in 1824 and so there was twelve years difference between them.
That was not all, though. Dickens had a very different
upbringing. He was the son of a ne’er-do-well spendthrift who landed himself in
a debtors’ prison and condemned his son to years of working in a blacking
factory whereas Wilkie was the son of a prosperous artist and was deeply loved
and much indulged by both parents.
Nevertheless, when they met in 1851 they were drawn together
by their shared love of amateur dramatics and Charles Dickens became a great
influence in Wilkie Collins life, advising him on his literary ambitions,
providing him with a job and a salary and much valuable experience while
working on a journal edited by Dickens.
On his side, Dickens got great pleasure from the lively
humorous young Wilkie Collins. They went on holidays together on the continent
and Collins was invited to Dickens holiday home in Broadstairs by the sea in
Kent.
But it was the long walks that the two took through the length and breadth of London by night that cemented the friendship and it was these long walks through the gas lighted streets which inspired my own imagination to invent some mysteries which might have been solved by these two friends.
The first mystery is set by the Thames and involves the murder of a girl whom Dickens had known when he was involved in the charitable enterprise to rescue young prostitutes newly released from prison and educate them to befit them for a new life in Australia.
The second mystery deals with the artists of the period. The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, friends of both men, and the third will deal with one of Dickens amateur dramatics set in the magnificent of castle of the well-known Lord Edwin Bulwer-Lytton.
Cora Harrison
Note: the success of the series has prompted further books.
