Conor Daly

Conor Daly is a pen name used by Kevin Egan (see his separate author page) for a three-book golf mystery series. Kevin’s preoccupation with golf stems from the college summers he spent working at a golf course. Though none of these novels require any special golf knowledge to read and enjoy, he drew upon memories from those summers to create realistic settings and contextual detail.

The series features Kieran Lenahan, a lawyer who quit the practice of law to become a golf pro. Bouncing between the professional tour and a sedate country club, Kieran cannot shake the problems (or the characters) that bedeviled his legal career.

In Local Knowledge, a dead client’s testamentary request that Kieran auction a set of rare German golf clubs enmeshes him in a murderous conspiracy with roots in World War II. The New York Times called it “a fast-paced mystery.” Golf Magazine described it as “a punchy page-turned chock-full of colorful characters and snappy language.”

In Buried Lies, Kieran is falsely accused of torching his own pro shop on the same day that his long-time caddie falls in front of a train. Only Kieran believes that the two events are connected. Published in 1996, with many other golf mystery novels on the market, Booklist opined: “Good golf scenes and a believable mystery make this second Kieran Lenahan novel the best golfing mystery on the market.”

In Outside Agency, Kieran wakes up in a strange apartment next to a woman who happens to be dead. He has no memory of who she is or how he got there, but needs to find out fast to save his own neck. Kirkus Reviews called this third installment “conscientiously plotted, with a well-concealed killer.” Library Journal remarked it had “a nicely evolving plot, smoothly told.” Booklist observed that “Daly pretty much sticks to formula in this series, but he does so competently and efficiently."