Moira, Deirdre and Nuala Gallagher, the three sisters team of Gallagher Investigations, experience more encounters with troubled spirits needing their assistance before they can move on in the Afterlife.
A grieving mother is reunited with the child who was taken from her. A hiker accosted by a predator gets retribution. A victim of institutionalized terror finds release. A woman haunted by the ghosts of her past finds peace, and two conspiring young men are set straight by their deceased mothers.
Join the Gallagher girls for more adventures in Ireland and beyond.
Moira, Deirdre and Nuala Gallagher, the three sisters team of Gallagher Investigations, experience more encounters with troubled spirits needing their assistance before they can move on in the Afterlife.
A grieving mother is reunited with the child who was taken from her. A hiker accosted by a predator gets retribution. A victim of institutionalized terror finds release. A woman haunted by the ghosts of her past finds peace, and two conspiring young men are set straight by their deceased mothers.
Join the Gallagher girls for more adventures in Ireland and beyond.
chapter 1
Is maith an scáthán súil charad A friend’s eye is a good mirror.
—Irish Proverb
Kildare, Spring 2012
T
here’s a locked door on the second floor that’s stuck. None of the keys you gave me
seem to work.”
Nuala turned from the starters she was prepping to address Siobhán, her newly hired, part-time house cleaner.
“Locked or stuck?”
“The doorknob turns but I can’t pull it open.”
“Okay, give me a minute to search for Sean’s keyring — I don’t think he took it with him to the auction — wait, you know what? Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out before your next visit. Just skip that room for now.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be another thirty minutes or so then.”
“Thanks, Siobhán. I couldn’t begin to do all the cleaning in this place on my own.”
With Seán gone overnight to the horse auction, it wasn’t until later that evening when Nuala returned from the catering gig that she remembered the locked room. Still fuelled by adrenaline after the success of the party, she couldn’t settle into sleep and determined to look at the locked door.
She located Seán’s ring of keys in his top right desk drawer and armed with those, plus her own household set of keys, she bounded up the stairs to the second floor. With the master suite on the main floor, she rarely came up here, as she and Seán had a hard enough time finding uses for all the rooms below. This upper area had been mainly used as guest rooms and servants’ quarters, something they had no use for.
It didn’t take her long to ascertain which room Siobhán had referred to, as she had left all the other doors open, and the windows cracked to let in the fresh spring air and dispel the cloying smell of dust and disuse. Several keys on Seán’s ring fitted the lock but wouldn’t turn. She finally found one that turned slightly, but then stopped short of disengaging the lock.
Nuala removed the key and got down on her knees to peer into the lock. She brushed a wayward strand of
A Haunting at Hawthorn
her chestnut pageboy away from her eyes and shown the torch into the opening. There was something white — a piece of paper? — wedged into the hole. Running down to her bedroom, she grabbed her tweezers from the bath and made her way back to the locked room.
It took some time to finesse the paper free, but when it finally came loose, she saw that it had been folded several times into a tiny square. She carefully unfolded it, but the paper was blank.
Hmm. What is that all about?
Nuala tucked the tiny wad into her pocket then tried the key again. The faint click told her it was disengaged. She turned the handle and pushed. The room was sparsely furnished as a bedchamber with a twin-sized iron-frame bedstead, devoid of mattress. Next to the bed was a wooden cradle. As Nuala entered the room, a tingle shot up her spine and her heart began to beat faster. Something about that cradle was drawing her in.
Peering into the small space, she couldn’t explain the dread she felt. What did she expect to find, a tiny skeleton? Her imagination was running away from her. The cradle was empty. She breathed out heavily, but the dread remained. Why had the room been locked? Why was the lock jammed? Who had stayed here?
The euphoria from the successful catering event had dissipated and she suddenly felt drained and exhausted. For some reason unknown to even herself, she locked the door once again behind her. But as she removed the key and dropped it into her pocket, she felt a breeze blow through the hall, and in the breeze, the whispered words find my baby wafted softly into her mind.
Sean wouldn’t be home until late the next evening, but Nuala had to talk to someone. Who else but her sister, Moira, who had been hearing ghostly whispers since she was a wean. It was going on half-eleven — too late to call? Nuala texted first:
—You awake?
A few minutes later, the response:
—What’s up?
—Want to talk?
—Please!
Her mobile buzzed: Moira. With no preamble or greeting, Nuala blurted: “I think I just heard my first Visitor from Beyond.”
A Haunting at Hawthorn by Gail Grant Park is specifically a collection of several short stories that are all interconnected by one very special trio of sisters: Moira, Deirdre, and Nuala. Using their psychic abilities and talents for the greater good; they embark on missions to help others and even solve crimes. For instance, Moira actually receives visits from the dead and they speak to her. Nuala however has dreams that show her things that have happened to others.
The book is comprised of several shorter stories. Thus,
Each mysterious story reveals a case that Gallagher Investigations must pull their talents together to solve.
You don’t have to believe in psychics or mediums to enjoy these stories. Though as some of the tales involve violent crimes they can be a little triggering. They also deal with some of the more problematic issues of Ireland’s history, for example the Magdalena Laundry system. The author does a great job of tackling history, real life issues, and facts within these paranormal tales.
What I liked most was the seamless way each story blended together, whether they were trying to locate a missing person or helping Diedre’s boyfriend deal with his wayward brother in their Italian winery. My favorite story, in fact, is Death Down Under, in which the sisters are hired by a woman to find her sister who disappeared while traveling to New Zealand on a hiking excursion.
Another thing I loved was the inclusion of Irish names, lore, and quotations. Even some Irish recipes are included in the end pages. I found no errors or typos. The formatting and layout are beautiful and professional.
I felt that there could have been a little more character description, but otherwise the stories are very engaging and exciting.
I recommend this book for lovers of ghost stories and the paranormal with a touch of history. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.