Death at Whitewater Church by Andrea Carter, Book Review

Nosey people get shot. Well, perhaps not all the time, but certainly in the case of Benedicta ‘Ben’ O’Keeffe, an Irish solicitor, who investigates unsavoury mysteries and turns up unresolved issues from the past for her clients. Now you can probably think of several reasons why some people might want to go around shooting solicitors, but Ben is actually quite nice and helpful. She has set up a practice in small town Ireland, a place full of the motley characters you might expect in small town anywhere. Only in this case they are the inhabitants of the fictional town of Glendara on the atmospheric peninsula of Inishowen in Donegal.

When an old deconsecrated church is to be redeveloped, Ben is asked to do some conveyancing. However, this will not be a straightforward sale, as during a site inspection a skeleton wrapped in a blanket turns up in the crypt. Are these the bones of Conor Devitt, a local man who had gone missing six years previously? The police side of things is handled by the handsome Tom Molloy. Now that doesn’t surprise me, the handsome bit, that is. Irish men in my opinion, are often very handsome and certainly quite charming. So what will this Sergeant make of Ben interfering in his investigation? And what has the IRA to do with it? (I wonder if there is an Irish crime novel that doesn’t in some way feature the Troubles). Death at Whitewater Church, the author’s debut novel, is a well-constructed mystery that engages to the end.

From her mini bio I can see that the author Andrea Carter followed the advice, ‘write what you know’. She herself, now a barrister, had been a solicitor in a small place in Donegal. Death at Whitewater Church was first published by Constable in May 2016, paperback £8.99. 

(Indiana Brown)