County Wicklow Mysteries

Twenty-one-year-old Ciaran McGurk has just graduated from a Dublin university and is about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime. He's planning a move to London with a classmate in hopes of landing a job in journalism, ideally for a newspaper. Writing is the work he loves, though he fears that in an era of social networking, print journalism is fast becoming the dinosaur of career paths. But a family emergency interrupts all his plans. Suddenly Cary finds himself back in his hometown, Glenkerry, in County Wicklow. There he reconnects with an old friend, Rosie O'Malley. Her story has always been a sad one, and now it seems history is repeating itself. Her mother has disappeared, and Rosie is desperate to locate her. And Rosie's father and brothers are her biggest obstacles. So she turns to her old friend, Cary McGurk, for help. But it's complicated, with a web of secrets, lies, and mystery entangling them. Cary is torn-torn between starting a new life in London and plunging back into his old life in Glenkerry, a place full of sweet memories tinged with sorrow and regret. His head is telling him to move on, but will his heart listen?ROSE OF GLENKERRY: A County Wicklow Mystery by Robert T. McMaster, Unquomonk Press, 2022. Both paperback and eBook editions are now available.

Newly graduated from a Dublin university, Cary McGurk has revived the Glenkerry Gazette, a small weekly newspaper founded by his father nearly thirty years ago. But Patrick McGurk is gone; he died suddenly just days before Cary's graduation. Reeling from the loss, Cary decides that re-opening the newspaper would be a fitting tribute to his father as well as an exciting opportunity for an aspiring young journalist like himself. But a month later the young publisher struggles to attract readers and advertisers and pay the bills. "If only there was one big story, one riveting piece of news that everyone in Glenkerry will want to read" he tells himself, even as a small voice within issues a warning: "Be careful what you wish for!" Early on a calm September morning, Cary sets off on a run at Travelhawk Beach at the foot of the Black Castle in Wicklow town. There he makes a startling, unsettling discovery–the body of a man, wrapped in seaweed, awash on the beach at the foot of the ancient ruins. But who is this man? What brought him to this normally peaceful place? And how did he die? The gardaí investigate, but progress is slow. Meanwhile Cary and his friend Rosie O'Malley do some sleuthing of their own, uncovering a web of intrigue that stretches back a decade and half and a world away. Most alarming of all, the story it seems is not over, threatening to shatter the peace and tranquility of Glenkerry.