The Haunting Ballad
A Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Seance Society introduced mystery lovers to Mr. O'Nelligan and Lee Plunkett, an unlikely pair of sleuths on an equally unlikely case with a supernatural twist. Having taken over his father's PI business, Lee enlisted O'Nelligan, a dapper Irishman with a flair for solving mysteries, to help catch a killer.
Now, in Michael Nethercott's The Haunting Ballad, this sleuthing "odd couple" are back in another witty, charming, and wonderfully written mystery, this time set in 1957 in the burgeoning music scene of New York City's Greenwich Village.
It's the spring of 1957, and O'Nelligan and Plunkett are summoned to New York to investigate the death of a controversial folk song collector. The trail leads the pair to a diverse group of suspects including an eccentric Beat coffee house owner, a family of Irish balladeers (who may be IRA), a bluesy ex-con, a hundred-and-five-year-old Civil War drummer boy, and a self-proclaimed "ghost chanter" who sings songs that she receives from the dead. To complicate matters, there's a handsome, smooth-talking young folk singer who Lee's fiancée Audrey is enthralled by. And somewhere in the Bohemian swirl of the Village, a killer waits...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1957, Nethercott's diverting second Lee Plunkett mystery (after 2013's The S ance Society) takes the Connecticut PI and his fianc e, Audrey Valish, to Greenwich Village. At the Cafe Mercutio, they witness an acrimonious dispute between two performers, "song-catcher" Lorraine Cobble and troubadour Byron Spires. When Lorraine apparently leaps to her death from the roof of her apartment building, her distraught cousin, Sally Joan Cobble, hires Lee to prove she didn't commit suicide. Lee is the nominal detective, but the heavy lifting is done by wily Irishman Mr. O'Nelligan, who lends sage advice and guidance. Together, the duo approach Lorraine's former housemates, such as "ghost chanter" Mrs. Pattinshell and 105-year-old Civil War vet Cornelius Boyle. Nethercott has fun with the bustling Bohemian atmosphere and Lee and Audrey's awkward romance, but reserves the best lines for the exchanges between O'Nelligan and Lee as they close in on the unlikely culprit.
