H is for Haunted

Vicki of Reading At The Beach hosts A-Z Wednesday. Today’s letter is H.

I read this in the summer of 2008, before I started this blog. I remember loving the setting. I’m not sure why I never got around to picking up Lake of Sorrows, the second in the series. I need to  before the third comes out next year.

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart

From the author’s website:

Two farmers cutting turf in the west of Ireland make a grisly discovery—the  perfectly preserved severed head of a beautiful young woman with long red hair. Called out to the bog to investigate, Irish archeologist  Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin are thrown together by their shared curiosity about her fate.

Archaeologist Cormac Maguire is quickly called to the scene—“bog bodies” are always a remarkable find, sometimes centuries old but still close to their original condition. Cormac and Nora embark on a mission to determine the identity of the beautiful young  woman and what led to her brutal fate.

But there are other mysteries buried within this small Irish town as well. Villagers are still suspicious of Hugh Osborne, a local landowner whose wife and young son disappeared abruptly two years ago without a trace.  As Cormac and Nora dig into the background of the enigmatic redhead, policeman Garrett Devaney quietly reopens the Osborne case. As deeper layers of secrets are revealed in each mystery, sleeping dangers are awakened, and past deaths could translate into future murders.

Meticulously crafted, and resonating with traditional music and  folklore, Haunted Ground considers Ireland’s turbulent history, revealing the eternal, subliminal connections between past and present.

My brief comments at the time:

I loved the way Hart blended a historical mystery and a modern-day one, allowing us to learn more about Ireland and its history in the process. The characters were well-drawn, even the secondary ones, and the setting was beautiful.