THREE WIDOWS

5 stars out of 5

The day-to-day life of Detective Lottie Parker in Ragmullin, Ireland, is such an unholy mess that it almost makes my head hurt, but over several books (this one makes an even dozen) I've come to love reading all about it. And this one fits the pattern perfectly. Not only must she oversee an investigation of several sadistic murders, she and her police partner and significant other, Detective Mark Boyd, must deal with the sudden and suspicious return of his ex-wife, infighting and over-the-top infatuation within the department ranks and her mother's ever-worsening dementia.

All three situations get substantial page time, but it is, of course, the murder investigation that takes center stage. It begins with the discovery of a woman's body - one that's been severely beaten (ante-mortem) and had the eyes surgically removed (thankfully after the fact).

The victim had lost her husband recently, and she'd hooked up with a relatively new widows' support group dubbed Life After Loss. Lottie's team is still working on that investigation - and Boyd is still agonizing over his ex-wife's motives for return to Ireland and Detective Kirby is still trying to make sense of his new relationship - when another woman from the widows' group goes missing. And so the cycle goes until the end, when the case is (mostly) resolved. All told, it's another engrossing and thoroughly entertaining read - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

Three Widows by Patricia Gibney (Bookouture, February 2022); 507 pp.