With Our Blessing

Det. Insp. Tom Reynolds, the hero of this taut series launch from Spain (The Confession), and his fellow members of the Dublin Murder Squad investigate the murder of the Reverend Mother Attracta, whose mutilated body was found in a city park. Attracta was the head of a convent in the remote village of Kilcross. Now housing only a handful of nuns, the convent was once one of the notorious Magadalene Laundries. Begun as charitable refuges for indigent women, the laundries quickly became state-sanctioned dumping grounds for unwanted children rife with abuse, including black market adoptions. Before the inquiry is fully underway, Det. Laura Brennan discovers that her family has a dark connection to the convent. While a winter storm isolates Reynolds and his team, a second victim the parish priest with sins to hide is murdered. Reynolds, facing a crisis of his own, must accept that the killer may be closer to home than he cares to acknowledge. Spain's fully realized characters, brisk plot, and clear-eyed view of Ireland's painful past engage readers from the start.