The Deadly Weed
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Reverend Mother's investigative skills are called into action when a local tobacco factory burns down and fingers are pointed at one of her ex pupils...
"Stellar . . . Harrison is writing at the top of her game" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review
1920s. Cork, Ireland. Early one morning the Reverend Mother receives news of a deadly fire at the local cigarette factory, a place where she'd been so proud that some of her pupils had been given a steady job. In a city full of poverty, unemployment and political unrest, these ex pupils of hers had surely been blessed with such prospects. Now, though, she is worried . . . What happened at the cigarette factory and why are there rumours circulating that one of her 'girls' was responsible?
Inspector Patrick Cashman is under pressure to quickly find the cause of the fire - and identify a suspect - to placate the visiting Lord Mayor and Commissioner and secure his hopes of promotion. Patrick turns to his friend, the journalist and law student Eileen MacSweeney, for help, along with the ever insightful and calm Reverend Mother. From the fog-ridden streets of the slums to the green pastures and prosperity of nearby Youghal, together they begin to unravel a seedy history of greed, ambition and a desire for power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A fire at a Cork cigarette factory owned by the Reverend Mother Aquinas's cousin Robert Murphy sparks Harrison's stellar 10th 1920s Irish mystery featuring the insightful religious sleuth (after 2022's Murder in the Cathedral). Murphy gave jobs to 10 girls in the school the Reverend Mother oversees, largesse she welcomed as a means for the impoverished children to earn something for their families. The fire's one fatality is Timothy Dooley, the plant's manager, who had drunk himself into unconsciousness and died of smoke inhalation. Though there were no obvious signs of arson, a witness claims that one of the girls, Maureen McCarthy, stayed behind after her colleagues had left the factory and started the conflagration. As Insp. Patrick Cashman investigates, he finds Maureen uncooperative and hostile, and learns that Dooley was once accused of rape. That discovery leads him to expand his circle of suspects to include the rape victim's father. Aided by the Reverend Mother, who rivals Jane Marple in her astute observations of human nature, the inspector narrows in on the truth. A fair-play puzzle matches a vivid evocation of the past. Harrison is writing at the top of her game.
