Haunted Ground: A Novel
by Erin Hart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Erin HartEdition: Paperback
Published: 2005-02-22
ISBN: 0743272102
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of Haunted Ground: A Novel
Book Review: A woman's head preserved from time's destruction stirs up a stagnant investigation of two missing people as well as its own end
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like to read about history then there are a couple of ways you can go. Standard historical texts, historical fiction or books about history that are set in the present. "Haunted Ground" is one such book. Though it a murder mystery set completely in the present (year unspecified but somewhere around now) a great deal of its content has to do with (literally) digging into the past.
Did you know that anything biological buried in a peat bog doesn't decay but actually undergoes a biological change that preserves it for up to thousands of years? Pathologist Nora Gavin and archeologist Cormac Maguire do, and when a body shows up in the peat, as it does from time to time, it's their job to dig it up and try to figure out who it was.
But the body they uncover in the small village of Dunbeg is different. For one thing it isn't a body at all, but the head of a red haired woman, perfectly preserved in the moment of her horrifying death. And something about this discovery seems to have brought up and shaken loose the case of a missing woman and child-for which everyone blames the husband, Hugh Osborn the local landowner.
Haunted by the unsolved death of her sister Nora sees Hugh's offer to Cormac her to do some archeological work in the area as an opportunity to find out what happened to his wife and son-as well as the red haired girl from the bog. A local police officer who won't let the past be forgotten is on the case but it seems our two amateur detectives are the ones making the big breaks-and being put in danger. But as the past collides with the present there are questions that must be answered-can they be without bringing doom to our characters?
This was a really, really enjoyable mystery. Not only is it extremely creepy (as any mystery carried out in an old crumbling manor house and the moors of a soggy bog should be) but both the mystery from the past and the present are engaging and the clues throughout the book are just enough to tantalize but not enough to ruin the ending. The idea of using culture (local music, poems, myths, priest records and anthropological findings) to solve old crimes is fascinating and actually worked in this instance to identify a hundreds of years dead and gone woman.
The science of peat bogs is also really interesting as is the (admittedly scant) information in this novel about the change over Cromwell performed from catholic to protestant landowners which was something I'd never even heard of (I blame the American school system for this.)
All in all this is an engaging book with great characters, two wonderful mysteries and best of all an educational aspect. I look forward greatly to reading Erin Hart's next book (a sequel!)
Five stars.
Summary of Haunted Ground: A Novel
The dazzling, award-winning debut in a series that delivers mystery, romance, suspense, and fascinating forensic detailWhen farmers cutting turf in an Irish peat bog make a grisly discovery -- the perfectly preserved head of a young woman with long red hair -- Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin must use cutting-edge techniques to preserve ancient evidence. Because the bog's watery, acidic environment prevents decay, it's difficult to tell how long the red-haired girl has been buried -- two years, two centuries, or even much longer. Who is she? The extraordinary find leads to even more disturbing puzzles. The red-haired girl is not the only enigma in this remote corner of Galway. Two years earlier, Mina Osborne, the wife of a local landowner, went for a walk with her young son and vanished without a trace. Could they, too, be hidden in the bog's treacherous depths, only to be discovered centuries from now? Or did Hugh Osborne murder his family, as some villagers suspect? Bracklyn House, Osborne's stately home, holds many secrets, and Nora and Cormac's inquiries threaten to expose them all.
"A dazzling debut -- already an international publishing sensation -- combining forensics, history, archaeology, and suspense. Introducing Erin Hart, who brings the beauty, poignancy, mystery, and romance of the Irish countryside to her richly nuanced first novel. When farmers cutting turf in a peat bog make a grisly discovery -- the perfectly preserved severed head of a young woman with long red hair -- Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin team up in a case that will open old wounds. Peat bogs prevent decay, so the decapitated young woman could have been buried for two decades, two centuries, or even much longer. Who is she? When was she killed? The extraordinary find leads to even more disturbing puzzles. The red-haired girl is clearly a case for the archaeologists, not the police. Still, her tale may have shocking ties to the present, and Cormac and Nora must use cutting-edge techniques to preserve ancient evidence. And the red-haired girl is not the only enigma in this remote corner of Galway. Two years earlier, Mina Osborne, the local landowner's Indian-born wife, went for a walk with her young son and never returned. Did Mina simply decide to disappear, or did mother and child become lost in the treacherous bog? Could they, too, be hidden in its depths, only to be discovered centuries from now? Or did the landowner, Hugh Osborne, murder his family, as some villagers suspect? Bracklyn House, Osborne's stately home, holds many secrets for Nora and Cormac and policeman Garrett Devaney. But time is running out. Devaney's superiors want him off the Osborne case. Now. He wants to stay and find a killer. Meticulously crafted and resonating with traditional music and folklore, Haunted Ground celebrates Ireland's turbulent history, revealing the eternal, subliminal connections between past and present in a riveting novel that heralds the arrival of a bright new crime-writing star. "
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