Irish Coffee
A Mystery Set at the University of Notre Dame
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Set against the backdrop of an exciting Notre Dame basketball season, Irish Coffee will delight fans of both Notre Dame lore and of Ralph McInerny's impeccably plotted mysteries.
When Fred Neville of the Notre Dame athletic department winds up dead under mysterious circumstances, amateur sleuth and academic Roger Knight, and his brother, Phil, a P.I., investigate the apparent murder. The trouble: no suspects. No suspects, that is, until the day of Fred's funeral, when several likely candidates suddenly appear at the poor man's wake.
First, Mary Schuster, daughter of a faculty widow, shows up at the event dressed all in black, with the startling announcement that she and the deceased were secretly in love. Then the controversy doubles when another woman arrives with a huge diamond ring on her finger, claiming to have been Fred's intended. Could it be that unassuming Fred Neville was actually involved with two women, in secret and at the same time? Roger thinks not, and finds a notable piece of evidence to back up his hunch when a secret stash of Fred's poetry turns up, clearly written with a single woman in mind. Unfortunately, the object of Fred's intense love remains unnamed in his verse. Suddenly, both women are suspects in a vicious crime. But it's up to Roger to plug into the campus gossip grid and, with a little help from Phil, not to mention his vast knowledge of just about everything that happens on campus, determine the exact chain of events that led to murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In McInerny's seventh pleasant page-turner set at the University of Notre Dame (after 2002's Celt and Pepper) featuring professor Roger Knight and his PI brother Philip, Fred Neville, assistant sports information director, yearns for a career in literature. (He even writes poetry when no one is looking.) When Fred dies mysteriously in bed, it comes out at his funeral service that he had another, more interesting, life: he was secretly engaged to at least two women, to the surprise and consternation of each. Suicide is initially suspected, but the coroner's discovery of strychnine in a cup containing the remains of coffee and bourbon points to murder. After one of the fianc es turns up dead in Fred's apartment, having drunk another poisoned Irish coffee, things start to get complicated. Snappy dialogue touched with humor propels the plot. Readers are unlikely to solve the puzzle, but will have a lot of fun trying. FYI:McInerny is also the author of the Father Dowling and Andrew Broom mystery series.