Buried in a Bog
Authors: Sheila Connolly
Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #General, #Women Sleuths
P
RAISE FOR THE
O
RCHARD
M
YSTERIES
“Sheila Connolly’s Orchard Mysteries are some of the most satisfying cozy mysteries I’ve read…Warm and entertaining from the first paragraph to the last. Fans will look forward to the next Orchard Mystery.”
—
Lesa’s Book Critiques
“An enjoyable and well-written book with some excellent apple recipes at the end.”
—
Cozy Library
“The mystery is intelligent and has an interesting twist…[A] fun, quick read with an enjoyable heroine.”
—
The Mystery Reader
(four stars)
“Delightful…[A] fascinating whodunit filled with surprises.”
—
The Mystery Gazette
“[A] delightful new series.”
—
Gumshoe Review
“The premise and plot are solid, and Meg seems a perfect fit for her role.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“A fresh and appealing sleuth with a bushel full of entertaining problems.
One Bad Apple
is one crisp, delicious read.”
—Claudia Bishop, author of the Hemlock Falls Mysteries
“A delightful look at small-town New England, with an intriguing puzzle thrown in.”
—JoAnna Carl, author of the Chocoholic Mysteries
“A promising new mystery series. Thoroughly enjoyable…I can’t wait for the next book and a chance to spend more time with Meg and the good people of Granford.”
—Sammi Carter, author of the Candy Shop Mysteries
P
RAISE FOR THE
M
USEUM
M
YSTERIES
“Skillfully executed…It’s a pleasure to accompany Nell on her quest.
Fundraising the Dead
is a promising debut with a winning protagonist.”
—
Mystery Scene
“[The] archival milieu and the foibles of the characters are intriguing, and it’s refreshing to encounter an FBI man who is human, competent, and essential to the plot.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“She’s smart, she’s savvy, and she’s sharp enough to spot what really goes on behind the scenes in museum politics. The practical and confident Nell Pratt is exactly the kind of sleuth you want in your corner when the going gets tough. Sheila Connolly serves up a snappy and sophisticated mystery that leaves you lusting for the next witty installment.”
—Mary Jane Maffini, author of the Charlotte Adams Mysteries
“
National Treasure
meets
The Philadelphia Story
in this clever, charming, and sophisticated caper. When murder and mayhem become the main attractions at a prestigious museum, its feisty fundraiser goes undercover to prove it’s not just the museum’s pricey collection that’s concealing a hidden history. Secrets, lies, and a delightful revenge conspiracy make this a real page-turner!”
—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha Award–winning author of
The Other Woman
“Sheila Connolly’s wonderful new series is a witty, engaging blend of history and mystery with a smart sleuth who already feels like a good friend…Her stories always keep me turning pages—often well past my bedtime.”
—Julie Hyzy,
New York Times
bestselling author of the White House Chef Mysteries
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Sheila Connolly
Orchard Mysteries
ONE BAD APPLE
ROTTEN TO THE CORE
RED DELICIOUS DEATH
A KILLER CROP
BITTER HARVEST
SOUR APPLES
Museum Mysteries
FUNDRAISING THE DEAD
LET’S PLAY DEAD
FIRE ENGINE DEAD
County Cork Mysteries
BURIED IN A BOG
Specials
DEAD LETTERS
AN OPEN BOOK
SHEILA CONNOLLY
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa), Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193, South Africa • Penguin China, B7 Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BURIED IN A BOG
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / February 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Sheila Connolly.
Cover illustration by Daniel Craig.
Cover photos:
Celtic Knots
© shutterstock;
Ivy
© Prakapenka.
Interior text design by Laura K. Corless.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61912-4
BERKLEY
®
PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
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®
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| ALWAYS LEARNING | PEARSON |
My father’s father, John Connolly, was born in County Cork in 1883 and arrived in New York City in 1911. I never knew him. As an adult I thought that visiting Ireland, particularly the area where he was born, might help me understand who he was, and the result was a series of trips to Cork that I hope will go on.
My grandfather’s part of Cork is known as the Wild West, about as far as you can get from Dublin. It’s where Michael Collins was born, and where he was ambushed and died. It’s also an area that was particularly hard-hit by the Irish Potato Famine in the mid-nineteenth century. Somehow my Connolly ancestors managed to thrive, and there are still Connollys there.
This series was inspired by my discovery of a pub called Connolly’s, in the tiny village of Leap near my grandfather’s even tinier townland of Knockskagh. While the pub was small, it was well known for the musicians it attracted from all over Ireland. Sadly the last Connolly owner passed on a few years ago, but I had a chance to attend some memorable events there. I hope I’ve done right by it, in reviving it here at Sullivan’s, and there may yet be music there.
I’ve been a genealogist for years, but Irish genealogy poses
some challenges, mainly because in the past many Cork families held to traditional naming patterns—for example, a first-born son is named for his father’s father, a first-born daughter for her mother’s mother. You can imagine the confusion in a small community when multiple children are named for a shared grandfather! The solution has often been to add a nickname: Big Sean, Red-Haired Mick, Old Jerry, or even PatJoe (Patrick son of Joseph). I’ve used some of those in this book to help keep things straight. I hope I’ve got all the family connections right, but I won’t blame you for getting a bit lost. Not to worry—it’ll all come right in the end.
But this series might not have seen the light of day were it not for the several years I’ve spent taking classes in the Irish language. Some of the difficulties in learning Irish are due to the “improvements” in spelling imposed by the English in the middle of the last century. But when you hear it spoken, it’s far more musical, more expressive. I wish I could say I could speak it well after so many classes, but I’m still stuck on basics. I can at least follow a conversation, and the credit goes to Peigí Ni Chlochartaigh,
mo
mhúinteoir
, a great lady with a wicked sense of humor (in any language), and to my more fluent colleagues in those classes.
Of course I have to thank my amazing agent, Jessica Faust of BookEnds, who helped shape my protagonist’s character, and to my long-suffering editor, Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, with whom I had many debates about what was “really” Irish. I also appreciate the prompt assistance of the Public Relations Office of the Garda Siochána (the Irish police force) in Dublin, which answered my questions about Irish police jurisdictions and procedures.
Sometimes I wonder if County Cork is part of the modern world, despite the satellite dishes and mobile phones and supermarkets stocked with a wealth of European foods, because it feels timeless. It’s a special place, and I hope you’ll see that here.
Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.
People live in one another’s shadows.
—IRISH PROVERB
Chapter 1
M
aura Donovan checked her watch again. If she had it right, she had been traveling for over fourteen hours; she wasn’t going to reset it for the right time zone until she got where she was going, which she hoped would be any minute now. First the red-eye flight from Boston to Dublin; the cheapest she could find; then a bus from Dublin to Cork, then another, slower bus from Cork to Leap, a flyspeck on the map on the south coast of Ireland. But she was finding that in Ireland nobody ever hurried, especially on the local bus. The creaking vehicle would pull over at a location with no obvious markings, and people miraculously appeared. They greeted the driver by name; they greeted each other as well. Her they nodded at, wary of a stranger in their midst.