No comfort for the dead A novel

O'Donnell debuts with a complex and accomplished whodunit set in 1988 Ireland. After Emma Daly's hopes for a career as a police inspector are dashed, she returns home to the sleepy village of Castlefreke and fixes up the local library. Four years later, she gets a chance to emulate her favorite sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, after hearing gunshots from the home of her reclusive, elderly neighbor, Mr. Hollis. Emma spots a man fleeing the scene, then rushes into the house, where she finds Mr. Hollis dead and a younger man seriously wounded. The survivor turns out to be Colm Thornton, who disappeared from Castlefreke 32 years earlier. The police quickly settle on Colm as Mr. Hollis's killer, dismissing Emma's testimony abut the man she saw rushing from house. Colm's father, however, is convinced of his son's innocence and begs Emma to investigate. Rekindling her police ambitions, Emma starts poking around idyllic Castlefreke with the help of a few friends, and discovers trouble beneath the town's placid surface. O'Donnell's keen eye for small-town life brings to mind the regional mysteries of Charles Todd, and he matches his gift for atmosphere with intricate plotting and nuanced characterizations. A sequel would be more than welcome. Agent: Charlotte Seymour, Johnson & Alcock Literary. (Feb.)

Two natives return separately to a tiny village in West Cork. Things are tough for one of them and even tougher for the other. Even before she fell in love with Charley Thornton, Emma Daly was determined to join the Garda Siochana and rise to the very top. She got her first wish, but her second was squelched by an affair with a married colleague who promised to leave his wife for her but got her fired instead. Now she's back in Castlefreke, living with her father and doing her best to transform the town library from a room full of books to a social and cultural center. She's called back to her earlier vocation by the news that Mr. Hollis, the town's wealthiest citizen, has been shot dead in the Big House. There, village doctor Adam Thornton, Charley's father, finds his body, along with the seriously wounded Colm Thornton, Adam's younger brother, who vanished 32 years ago, settled in Belfast, and became a priest. When Adam and Colm's parents, Jimmy and Frances Thornton, beg Emma to investigate, her undying sense that she's channeling Sherlock Holmes makes her highly susceptible. The Thorntons aren't convinced that the two men shot each other; they're far from certain that Garda Sgt. Noonan can figure out who the real killer is; and they can't understand why Colm, who's had no contact with his family for a generation, chose to come back home in the first place. O'Donnell's debut is so atmospheric in its background and poetic in its language that readers will forgive the distinct sense of anticlimax when the real culprit is unmasked. As coolly bracing as an Irish spring. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.