Haunted Ground - Hardcover

Hart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743235053 ISBN 13: 9780743235051

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Erin Hart is a former communications director of the Minnesota State Arts Board and a founder of Minnesota's Irish Music and Dance Association. A graduate of St. Olaf College with a master's in English and creative writing from the University of Minnesota, she lives in Minneapolis with her husband, button accordion player Paddy O'Brien, with whom she frequently visits Ireland. Her short story "Waterborne" won the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers in 1996. Foreign publishing rights to Haunted Ground, her first novel, have so far been sold in Britain and Ireland, Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743235053
• ISBN 13: 9780743235051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328