A Distant Grave

Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’Arcy and her daughter Lilly plan a vacation in Ireland after the death of Maggie’s ex-husband the previous year. Just before the trip, Maggie and her partner catch a case: an unidentified man shot on a beach; he turns out to be from Dublin. Once he’s identified as Gabriel Treacy, Maggie calls Dublin detective Roly Byrne to ask why Gabriel is in the States. She gets strange answers from the Irish end: Gabriel worked for an international aid organization; his mother is dead; and he’s canceled his email accounts. Maggie’s boss agrees she might be able to learn more in Ireland, but the district attorney throws a fit when he learns she left during a major investigation. Maggie only gets a short time to connect with Conor, the man she loves, and to work the Irish angle, before she’s called back to the job. The DA’s office believes Treacy’s death is tied to a gang, but Maggie finds convoluted links to the past, to Gabriel’s birth, and his time as a hostage in Afghanistan.