The Night Boat

Bella Gallagher dies peacefully in the first week of December and leaves Róise a sealed envelope to be opened when she is "past minding".

Inside are three things: a key to a deed box, a photograph of two boats at the old herring pier dated November 1974, and a single line from one of Bella's old ledgers.

Before Róise can follow the trail, Manus Boyle, the last man who stood lighthouse watch over that stretch of water in 1974, is attacked in his home and left for dead.

The past is no longer a background mystery. Someone on today's island still has enough to lose to silence the final witness.

Róise's search reaches the third generation of the family that has managed the old secret for decades and leads to a December night pursuit at sea aboard Conall Mac Suibhne's ferry, the Réalt na Maidne. At last, the truth of Séimí Gallagher's death comes into the open: the boat running dark, the collision, the compact of silence, and the payments hidden for decades in the shop ledgers.

The Night Boat brings The Carraig Dubh Mysteries to its full reckoning, resolving the murder, the Gallagher family secret, the future of the island, and the thirty-year unfinished story between Róise and Conall.