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False Mermaid

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR ERIN HART DELIVERS A SEARING NEW NOVEL OF SUSPENSE, BRILLIANTLY MELDING MODERN FORENSICS AND IRISH MYTH AND MYSTERY IN THIS CHARGED THRILLER.American pathologist Nora Gavin fled to Ireland three years ago, hoping that distance from home would bring her peace. Though she threw herself into the study of bog bodies and the mysteries of their circumstances, she was ultimately led back to the one mystery she was unable to solve: the murder of her sister, Tríona. Nora can't move forward until she goes back—back to her home, to the scene of the crime, to the source of her nightmares and her deepest regrets.Determined to put her sister's case to rest and anxious about her eleven-year-old niece, Elizabeth, Nora returns to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to find that her brother-in-law, Peter Hallett, is about to remarry and has plans to leave the country with his new bride. Nora has long suspected Hallett in Tríona's murder, though there has never been any proof of his involvement, and now she believes that his new wife and Elizabeth may both be in danger. Time is short, and as Nora begins reinvestigating her sister's death, missed clues and ever-more disturbing details come to light. What is the significance of the "false mermaid" seeds found on Tríona's body? Why was her behavior so erratic in the days before her murder?Is there a link between Tríona's death and that of another young woman?Nora's search for answers takes her from the banks of the Mississippi to the cliffs of Ireland, where the eerie story of a fisherman's wife who vanished more than a century ago offers up uncanny parallels. As painful secrets come to light, Nora is drawn deeper into a past that still threatens to engulf her and must determine how much she is prepared to sacrifice to put one tragedy to rest… and to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.

Эрин Харт

Детективы18+

Erin Hart
FALSE MERMAID

To my siblings

Julie, Amy, and Jere

and their mates

Colin, Panayiotis, and Sheri

Tri rudan a thig gun iarraidh: an t-eagal, an t-eudach’s an gaol.

Three things come unbidden: fear, love, and jealousy.

—traditional Irish proverb

Maps

An Mhaighdean Mhara

Is cosúil gur mheath tú nó gur thréig tú an greannTá an sneachta go frasach fá bhéal na tráDo chúl buí daite is do bhéílín sámhSiúd chugaibh Mary hÉighnigh is í i ndiaidh an Éirne a shnámh.“A mháithrín mhilis” dúirt Máire bhán

Fá bhruach an chladaigh is fá bhéal na trá“Maighdean mhara mo mháithrín ard”Siúd chugaibh Mary hÉighnigh is í i ndiaidh an Éirne a shnámh.Tá mise tuirseach agus beidh go láMo Mháire bhruinngheal is mo Phádraig bánAr bharr na dtonnta is fá bhéal na tráSiúd chugaibh Mary hÉighnigh is í i ndiaidh an Éirne a shnámh.Tá an oíche seo dorcha is tá an ghaoth i ndrochairdTá an tseisreach ’na seasamh isna spéarthaí go hardAch ar bharr na dtonnta is fá bhéal na tráSiúd chugaibh Mary hÉighnigh is í i ndiaidh an Éirne a shnámh.

—amhrán traidisiúnta Gaeilge

The Mermaid

It seems you’ve faded away and abandoned the love of lifeThe snow is spread about at the mouth of the seaYour yellow flowing hair and little gentle mouthWe give you Mary Heaney who has swum across the Erne.“My faithful mother,” said fair MaryBy the edge of the shore and the mouth of the sea“A mermaid is my noble mother”We give you Mary Heaney who has swum across the Erne.I am tired and will be until dawn

My bright-breasted Mary and my blond PatrickOn top of the waves and by the mouth of the seaWe give you Mary Heaney who has swum across the Erne.The night is dark and the wind is illThe Plough can be seen high in the skyBut on top of the waves and by the mouth of the seaWe give you Mary Heaney who has swum across the Erne.

—traditional Irish song