Ruined Abbey

This eighth book is a prequel for Emery’s Collins-Burke mystery series (the first, Sign of the Cross, won an Arthur Ellis Award in 2007). It is a historical and political story that begins in April 1989, when Father Brennan Burke, a priest in New York City, rushes to London to deal with a crisis in his Irish family in England. When his cousin Conn is arrested for the murder of a policeman and is suspected of being part of a plot by the Irish Republican Army to blow up Westminster Abbey, Brennan, his sister Molly, and his brother Terry try to find the truth to prove his innocence. Along the way, Emery offers views of the violent history between England and Ireland, and roots of the Troubles, as seen through the eyes of the republican Burke family and recounted in authentic dialogue laced with Gaelic. As the richly developed characters re-examine events from their own past, they discover IRA ties much closer than they knew. True to the Irish tradition of great storytelling, this is a mesmerizing tale full of twists that will keep readers riveted from the first page to the last. (May)