Irish Gold (Nuala Anne McGrail Novels (Hardcover))

From Publishers Weekly
Greeley kicks off a new mystery series with this slick, if far-fetched, entry revolving around a hidden fortune in gold and the real-life, still unsolved, question of who killed Free Irish leader Michael Collins in 1922. Dermot Coyne, a 24-year-old American and sometime commodities trader, is in Dublin looking desultorily into why his maternal grandparents fled Ireland in 1922. An attack by three thugs aimed at getting Dermot to "let the dead sleep in peace" only inspires him to start digging in earnest-and, eventually, to uncover a cabal plotting the reunion of England and Ireland. Dermot shares his sleuthing with Nuala McGrail, a ravishing Trinity College student, singer and actress whom he hires to translate the Irish diaries his grandmother kept during the Troubles of 1919-1922. A typically hot-blooded Greeley hero, Dermot waxes ecstatic about Nuala's physique even while struggling to control his lust, which is never satisfied here-though promised sequels to this entertaining novel, including Irish Lace and Irish Linen, should give Dermot and Nuala further chances at romance, as well as at mystery. BOMC dual main selection; major ad/promo. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
On a benign quest, Dermot Michael Coyne travels to Dublin to investigate his grandparents' mysterious flight from Ireland to Chicago during the time of the "Troubles" in 1922. His initial foray produces life-threatening warnings intended to discourage him from delving into Liam and Nell O'Riada's past. In a local pub, Dermot reflects upon the horrifying prospect that Liam might have been a terrorist. Later, he is dazzled by the presence of a "Celtic goddess," Nuala McGrail. Thus begins Dermot and Nuala's passionate relationship. As translator of Nell's Irish diary chronicling the Troubles, Nuala subtly guides Dermot as he untangles a nefarious web of murder and intrigue. With a promise to continue the saga of Dermot and Nuala, priest and prolific novelist Greeley serves up piquant characters who are engulfed in delightful Irish mystery. Recommended for popular fiction collections.--Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland HeightsCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Priest-writer Greeley's latest novel is good. It's the first entry in a planned series of mystery novels, and if subsequent volumes are as well conceived and executed as this one, it should be a fine set of books. Young Dermot Coyne is in Dublin looking into his grandfather's past, particularly why he immigrated to America. Coyne eventually tangles with the Irish Special Branch, who want him to end his investigation. With the help of a young woman he meets in a pub, Nuala McGrail, Coyne learns of British involvement in the murder of Michael Collins, an Irish revolutionary leader gunned down in 1922 in the midst of the Irish civil war. Why is the Special Branch so interested in Coyne and his stone-turning? Because airing of the information on British involvement in Collins' murder would derail the current peace negotiations between Dublin and London. There's a lot of history to sort through here, but the persistent reader will be rewarded by a rich story and will look forward to the return of Dermot Coyne and Nuala McGrail in subsequent novels in the series. Brad Hooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Back in the Old Country to find out why his late grandparents left after the Troubles, insisting they could never return, Dermot Michael Coyne, retired from the Chicago commodities trading floor on a bit of Irish luck, runs headlong into fetching student Nuala Anne McGrail, reason enough to remain on the island forever. But Dermot won't succumb to his desire for Nuala, though he keeps her close by asking her to translate his grandmother's diaries. Nuala will need to work from a photocopy, though, since someone's stolen the diaries and the yellowed sheaf of clippings Nell Pat O'Riada left behind--clippings that suggest Nell Pat knew who killed Irish patriot Michael Collins and Daniel O'Kelly, commander of the Galway brigade, back in 1922. As Dermot and Nuala float through a lilting, tumescent present interrupted by periodic attacks by local bullyboys and veiled threats by their well-placed masters, excerpts from Nuala's translation unfold the parallel love story of Nell Pat and Dermot's grandfather, Liam O'Riada--and hint at the location of a treasure in Irish gold missing since the Easter Uprising in 1916. More romance than mystery, with Nell Pat's intermittent account of Civil War intrigue (complete with unconvincing celebrity killer) eclipsed by the mating dance of Nuala and Dermot. The would-be lovers may be less cloying back in Chicago, where Greeley (Sacraments of Love, 1993, etc.) promises to send them for a new series. (Book-of-the-Month Club dual selection) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


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Nuala Anne McGrail and Dermot Michael Coyne return in the third in this "Irish" series (Irish Gold, LJ 11/1/94; Irish Lace, LJ 11/1/96). When fey Nuala and her betrothed, Dermot, visit the graves of his grandparents, she senses an empty coffin. The coffin belongs to Jimmy "Sweet Rolls" Sullivan, who was a rival of Al Capone. So where is Jimmy? Witnesses swear they saw him gunned down by Capone's men during the celebration of his wife's birthday, where his blood stained the cake red. Nuala and Dermot must reach into the past to discover why Jimmy is not in his coffin. In the meantime, this handsome couple is nearing their wedding and desperately trying to keep their hands off each other until their blessed night. To further complicate the search for Jimmy, Dermot is defending himself against a grand jury indictment for alleged commodity exchange fraud. Typically entertaining Greeley fare. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/97.]Georgia Panos, Johnson Cty. Lib. System, Leawood, Kan. Read all 8 "From The Critics" >


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