In 2020’s THE WELL OF ICE, Irish solicitor (attorney) Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe is about to die at the hands of Luke Kirby, the monster who had murdered her sister a decade before. Tom Molloy, Ben’s beau and top cop, thwarts that attempt: the killer becomes the killed. Responsible for the death, Molloy can’t investigate himself and is assigned to Ireland’s County Cork, about 400 kilometers south. “[W]hatever we had seemed impossible to sustain. He had saved my life and left.” Crashing the cliché, absence makes the heart grow colder. Fortunately for Ben, Glendara newbie “Dr. Harry, as he’d quickly become known…was decidedly easy on the eye.”

Somewhat reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, where houseguests are offed one by one, this fourth novel released in the States by the author who shares Christie’s initials is set at an old manor house converted to a hotel. The imposing Italianate villa was acquired by a descendant --- Ian Grey and his wife, Abby --- of the forebear who had lost the estate in a gambling wager. “Greysbridge was a fine house, but there was something still and secretive about it.” A curious stone footbridge leads to an architecturally abhorrent structure with no means of egress, other than climbing a ladder to the bridge.

"Andrea Carter weaves the colorful threads of this manor house mystery and its complex subplots into a metaphoric fine Irish kilt."

Ben’s assistant, Leah, and her fiancé, Kevin, have booked the quaint hotel for their marriage ceremony, inviting family and friends. As the wedding parties begin, young American Jay Stevenson, who is staying at the hotel, drowns in shallow water. Dr. Harry tries, but fails, to resuscitate him. The marriage merriment is muted but continues.

Another hotel guest, not a wedding invitee, is British architectural historian Michael Burrows, who, after a wee dram of fortitude, boasts that his filmmaker son intends to feature Greysbridge and nearby tiny islands in a documentary. Several of the island residents dock their boats at the hotel’s private pier, but they remain secluded on their vessels. “Fridge” --- so named as he is the size of that appliance and in youth had been locked inside one --- tells Ben that Greysbridge is haunted by Louisa Grey’s ghost.

Wedding parties continue until the early hours, but one hotel guest fails to appear. Two deaths in one day. “Can this weekend get any worse?” Um…strange you should ask. Leah’s teen sister, Niamh, and her beau, Finn, have vanished, as has the Greys’ son, Ronan. Given the mysterious deaths and missing youths, Garda (police) are summoned. Ben is surprised to learn that Molloy leads the investigation.

Andrea Carter weaves the colorful threads of this manor house mystery and its complex subplots into a metaphoric fine Irish kilt. In the Irish national language Gaeilge (not Gaelic, an English corruption), a kilt is known as fèilidh.

Carter’s novels are set in fictional Glendara, Ireland. The Irish attorney-turned-author’s atmospheric mysteries are being adapted as a TV series filmed in Inishowen, County Donegal. She shares life in Dublin with her husband, Geoff Power, a documentary maker.

The Irish surname of Bookreporter’s Dean Murphy is Ó Murchadha, meaning sea warrior. Éirinn go Brách! (Ireland Forever!)