Where They Lie

Nicoletta Sarto, an ambitious rookie journalist in 1968 Dublin, gets a chance to make her mark as the decades-old disappearance of a well-known local actress makes its way into the news again. Julia Bridges’s bones have been found in the garden of a local well-to-do family, along with additional, unidentified bones. It was previously thought that jealous Gloria Fitzpatrick, a local midwife who provided abortions, murdered Julia. Nicoletta, who is carrying on an affair with a married coworker, becomes obsessed with the story. Given her editor’s blessing to pursue it, she finds more than she ever could have expected. Coughlan’s atmospheric debut capably portrays the infuriating limitations placed on working women in the 1960s, particularly in strict Catholic Dublin; Nicoletta faces chauvinism, patronizing behavior, and hazing. Coughlan creates a fully realized character with flaws and contradictions in Nicoletta. Some will guess the major shock early on, but the book is twisty enough to sustain interest. Irish actor Aoife McMahon provides a sensitive, well-paced delivery, and her lilting accent immerses listeners in Coughlan’s suspenseful landscape.