Death at Whitewater Church

by Andrea Carter

Overview

A missing groom—a deconsecrated church—a hidden crypt—a skeleton wrapped in a blanket

When a skeleton is discovered in the hidden crypt of a deconsecrated church, everyone is convinced the bones must be those of Conor Devitt, a local man who went missing on his wedding day six years previously. But the postmortem reveals otherwise.

Solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe is acting for the owners of the church. She is reluctant to get involved, but when Conor’s brother dies in strange circumstances shortly after coming to see her, she finds herself drawn into the mystery. Whose is the skeleton in the crypt and how did it get there? Is Conor Devitt still alive, and if so, is there a link? What happened on the morning of his wedding to make him disappear?

Negotiating between the official investigation—headed up by the handsome but surly Sergeant Tom Molloy—and obstructive locals with secrets of their own, Ben unravels layers of personal and political history to get to the truth of what happened six years before.

Death at Whitewater Church is the first in a series of Ben O’Keeffe mysteries set on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland.

Perfect for fans of Louise Penny, PD James, and Donna Leon

While all of the novels in the Inishowen Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:

Death at Whitewater Church
Treacherous Strand
The Well of Ice
Murder at Greysbridge (coming November 2021)
The Body Falls (coming November 2022)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608093533
Publisher:	Oceanview Publishing
Publication date:	12/17/2019
Series:	An Inishowen Mystery , #1
Edition description:	None
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	323,795
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andrea Carter holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. Her first book, Death at Whitewater Church, was one of the winners of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and she has been the recipient of two Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Awards and a Dublin City Council Bursary. Following Treacherous Strand, The Well of Ice is the third in the Inishowen Mystery Series—about to be adapted for a television crime series to be titled Donegal—The Inishowen Mysteries. Andrea Carter lives in Dublin with her husband, documentary maker Geoff Power.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Inishowen Mystery Series

“Haunting, atmospheric, and gripping. One of the finest Irish mystery debuts of recent years. Tana French has some serious competition.” —John Connolly, New York Times best-selling author


“An entourage of fascinating people and mysterious places lace this mystery with plenty of bark and bite. A captivating gem.” —Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author


“With Death at Whitewater Church, Andrea Carter announces herself as one of the most exciting new voices in Irish crime fiction. A wonderfully written debut, the rugged beauty of Donegal provides a stunningly realized backdrop to the twists and turns of Ben's investigations.” —Brian McGilloway, New York Times best-selling author


“A beguiling heroine—clever, sympathetic, and bearing a weight of guilt . . . this is Andrea Carter’s first book; she’ll go far.” —The Times (London)


“Andrea Carter writes brilliantly about a lively, entirely credible community where even your friends are suspects and your neighbors may end up dead. Everyone has a secret, and the revelations come thick and fast. Riveting, intriguing, and worryingly real.” —Liz Nugent, award-winning author


“[Treacherous Strand] . . . is hugely entertaining and satisfying, full of Irish legal tidbits and solidly drawn characters in a deliciously remote and picturesque locale. Ben is an intelligent and feisty woman you’d want in your corner. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (Starred Review)


“Treacherous Strand is atmospheric, intelligent and utterly gripping—a real treat for fans of Irish crime fiction.” —Catherine Ryan Howard, USA Today best-selling author


“Those seeking a contemporary puzzler in the Agatha Christie tradition will have fun.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

07/30/2018
Solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe, the intelligent, determined heroine of Irish author Carter’s atmospheric first novel and series launch, runs the “most northerly solicitor’s office in Ireland” on the Inishowen Peninsula. “Last legal advice before Iceland,” she thinks she should put on her notepaper. A routine job takes her to inspect a deconsecrated church, where, in the crypt, she and the surveyor accompanying her spot a human skeleton. When word gets out of this grisly find, many believe that the remains belong to a local man who disappeared on his wedding day six years earlier. Sgt. Tom Molloy, a friend of Ben’s, investigates. That a barred gate locked the victim in suggests foul play. A chance encounter with the pathologist who conducts the postmortem triggers painful memories of a personal loss that Ben suffered eight years before. A potential romance with Tom provides further complications. The complex, slow-moving plot can be challenging to follow at times, but readers will feel the effort is well worth it. Agent: Kerry Glencorse, Susanna Lea Assoc. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-06-18
A solicitor can't help but dig in a small Irish town when unidentified remains are found on the grounds of a local church.Though she's no detective, Benedicta O'Keeffe has a way of nosing herself into situations—or maybe it's more a matter of being at the right place at the right time. In her capacity as a solicitor, she's helping sell Inishowen's Whitewater Church when she stumbles on unburied remains loose in one of the crypts. Ben has no idea who the remains could be, but she reports the incident to her kind-of-friend Sgt. Tom Molloy, though Molloy is clear the interaction is business and that Ben is to keep out of any investigation. Ben is too new in town to have a stake in the remains, but the rest of Inishowen is filled with rumors that the body belongs to Conor Devitt, who mysteriously vanished the morning that was to see him wed to Lisa McCauley. Six years after Conor disappeared, his brother Danny became a bit unhinged, and now he shows up at Ben's office requesting her professional services while in a state too disturbed to convey what seems to be the problem or which services he needs. Ben is also approached by Conor's former fiancee, Lisa, who's just returned from her honeymoon and wants to have Conor officially declared dead so she can start her new life in peace. While Ben wants to help Danny and Lisa, she's distracted by the arrival of a forensic pathologist, who coincidentally knows the secrets of Ben's own dramatic past. Ben came to Inishowen because it was the furthest she could get from Dublin and the troubling death of her younger sister, and the arrival of the pathologist scares Ben into thinking, like the Whitewater remains, her own secrets may not stay buried.Writing with Agatha Christie in mind, Carter draws her heroine as curious, if bordering on interfering, and her debut's pacing as she explores the story encourages readers to seek the same connections she does.

Kirkus Reviews