A County Kerry Novel
2 primary works
Book 3
With the haunting, moody prose of Tana French and the compulsive storytelling of Dervla McTiernan or Ann Cleeves, bestselling author Carlene O’Connor lures readers to a remote village on Ireland’s southwest coast, where winding windswept roads open to spectacular views of rugged cliffs against immense, lonely beaches…and some fear a mysterious cult could be connected to the disappearance of a young pregnant woman.
After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they’re in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby.
Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she’s grateful for the help of a well-meaning ten-year-old boy, Dylan, at the veterinary clinic. But when the lad goes missing after going into a bog on a dare with two other boys to search for a “monster,” she is desperate to help find him.
After the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of a deaf pregnant woman being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from twenty years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd, lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Though allegations of baby smuggling were never proven, he’d been put away on other charges. But then they learn that the Shepherd has recently been released from prison.
Trapped in a cold, dark room with a frightened boy, Shauna fears for their lives as well as that of her unborn baby. If she has any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, as she calls her abductor, she’ll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out and her baby will be born soon . . .
After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they’re in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby.
Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she’s grateful for the help of a well-meaning ten-year-old boy, Dylan, at the veterinary clinic. But when the lad goes missing after going into a bog on a dare with two other boys to search for a “monster,” she is desperate to help find him.
After the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of a deaf pregnant woman being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from twenty years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd, lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Though allegations of baby smuggling were never proven, he’d been put away on other charges. But then they learn that the Shepherd has recently been released from prison.
Trapped in a cold, dark room with a frightened boy, Shauna fears for their lives as well as that of her unborn baby. If she has any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, as she calls her abductor, she’ll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out and her baby will be born soon . . .
Book 4
Against the stark beauty of southwest Ireland, Carlene O’Connor’s atmospheric County Kerry mystery series continues, and this time veterinarian Dimpna Wilde must reckon with a stalker whose obsession has turned deadly . . .
“Isn’t this how every ghost story begins?”
The roads around Dingle are whisper-quiet in the small hours of a rainy night, empty of the tourists who throng the town by day. As she and her assistant, Patrick, drive home after an already traumatic day, Dimpna Wilde isn’t expecting to see anyone, let alone her employee, Niamh, standing in the road, dressed in a nightgown and soaked to the skin.
Dazed and distraught, Niamh passes out after muttering incoherently, and at her apartment, Dimpna and Patrick make a grisly discovery. There’s a dead woman in Niamh’s bed, shot in the head, a hunting rifle beside her. When Niamh comes to, she has no memory of the day’s events, and no idea of the woman’s identity. All she can tell Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien with certainty is that for weeks, she’s felt like she was being watched.
Suspicion falls on Niamh’s new boyfriend, Mark Gallagher, who her friends have not yet met. But as Dimpna and Cormac try to track him down, they realize there’s no evidence Mark Gallagher ever even existed. All of Niamh’s texts and photos of him are missing or deleted, and he has no social media presence. What lingers is a nagging unease, especially when they learn of another, similar murder years ago—another woman found shot to death in her bed, a woman who had complained of being stalked, just like Niamh.
As Dimpna delves deeper into a twisting case, she feels someone watching her too, targeting her business, her animals, her family—even her sanity, willing to do anything to stop her from disclosing a terrifying truth . . .
“Isn’t this how every ghost story begins?”
The roads around Dingle are whisper-quiet in the small hours of a rainy night, empty of the tourists who throng the town by day. As she and her assistant, Patrick, drive home after an already traumatic day, Dimpna Wilde isn’t expecting to see anyone, let alone her employee, Niamh, standing in the road, dressed in a nightgown and soaked to the skin.
Dazed and distraught, Niamh passes out after muttering incoherently, and at her apartment, Dimpna and Patrick make a grisly discovery. There’s a dead woman in Niamh’s bed, shot in the head, a hunting rifle beside her. When Niamh comes to, she has no memory of the day’s events, and no idea of the woman’s identity. All she can tell Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien with certainty is that for weeks, she’s felt like she was being watched.
Suspicion falls on Niamh’s new boyfriend, Mark Gallagher, who her friends have not yet met. But as Dimpna and Cormac try to track him down, they realize there’s no evidence Mark Gallagher ever even existed. All of Niamh’s texts and photos of him are missing or deleted, and he has no social media presence. What lingers is a nagging unease, especially when they learn of another, similar murder years ago—another woman found shot to death in her bed, a woman who had complained of being stalked, just like Niamh.
As Dimpna delves deeper into a twisting case, she feels someone watching her too, targeting her business, her animals, her family—even her sanity, willing to do anything to stop her from disclosing a terrifying truth . . .