Callous
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Inheriting a Galway cottage may change a troubled woman’s life—but not the way she hopes—in this thriller from an “original, grimly hilarious” author (The Washington Post).
Kate Mitchell’s in the process of kicking her heroin addiction—with the help of alcohol—when a letter arrives informing her that her aunt in Ireland has passed away and bequeathed her a home near the ocean. This could be the start of a new and better life for Kate, far away from Brooklyn, where she and her surviving brothers are each struggling with their own dark pasts.
But Aunt Mary didn’t die peacefully—quite the opposite. The pair of thugs responsible for her murder had plans for her house: namely, turning it into a lovely seaside meth lab. One of Mary’s killers, however, finds his focus shifting when he spots a photo of the dead woman’s American niece, who bears a striking resemblance to the late opera singer Maria Callas, the beloved object of his obsession. When Kate and her brothers arrive to claim her inheritance, they’re going to find something other than a piece of paradise . . .
“Nobody writes like Ken Bruen, with his ear for lilting Irish prose and his taste for the kind of gallows humor heard only at the foot of the gallows.” —The New York Times
“Bruen has a rich and mordant writing style, full of offbeat humor.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in this propulsive standalone from Edgar finalist Bruen (the Jack Taylor series), Brooklyn resident Kate Mitchell, who's struggling to kick a heroin habit, wakes up from an alcohol-induced bender to find a letter from an Irish lawyer informing her that her 79-year-old aunt, Mary Casey, has died and left Kate a cottage in the Galway village of Claddagh. Hoping for a fresh start, Kate leaves Brooklyn with her two surviving brothers: one a priest and former police officer, the other a hotheaded ex-Marine. In Galway, they learn their aunt was murdered. Mary was approached by Dio Ortiz, a drug dealer with ties to a cartel, who was procuring houses to use as meth labs in Claddagh. When Dio saw a photo of Kate on Mary's mantel, he thought Kate resembled his obsession, opera singer Maria Callas, and killed Mary in the hope that would bring Kate to Galway, "where he'd woo her." The Mitchells soon find themselves on the receiving end of a campaign of intimidation. Lively characters and the author's trademark wit compensate for the convoluted plot. Bruen fans will clamor for more.