“The Coven Murders” by Brian O’Hare

A skeleton is found in a shallow grave near an old ruined church. Forensic tests show that it’s a female, had given birth, was likely in her early 20s, and had been buried there some 20 to 30 years. Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and his team investigate but leads are few, and Sheehan’s eyes glaze over when the two coroners explain the science.

One of the coroners is Andrew Jones. He stops for a bite to eat at a Belfast café. It’s crowded but he secures a table. A young woman arrives, also looking for a table, and Andrew offers her a chair at his. They get along, they talk, it gets late, and eventually he offers to drive her to her parents’ home. What they find upon arrival is an open door and the bodies of her parents, killed in what looks like some kind of ritual.

It gets worse. As the police detectives investigate, they find that the leads and suspects begin to die in the same way. These are all well-known, powerful., wealthy, influential people. They don’t know why their phone numbers show up in each other’s phones and directories. But nothing in this case is what appears to be. And then a link is discovered between the skeleton in the grave and the current murders, and the link is the young woman whose parents were murdered, the same young woman Andrew Jones is falling in love with.

The Coven Murders by Brian O’Hare is the third Jim Sheehan police procedural mystery. The novel moves in somewhat a different direction than the previous books in the series. Sheehan and his detectives run up against a force they’ve never previously encountered – Satan worshippers, with overlords and demons wreaking havoc. What’s also clear is that someone is systematically killing the members of the coven.

Brian O'Hare

This is not your traditional police procedural.

O’Hare is a retired assistant director of a large regional college in Northern Ireland. He’s written two previous Jim Sheehan mysteries, The Doom Murders and The 11:05 Murders; three Inspector Sheehan short stories, “Murder at Loftus House,” “Murder at the Roadside Café,” and “Murder at the Care Home;” a work of general fiction entitled Fallen Men; a memoir, A Spiritual Odyssey: A Diary of an Ordinary Catholic; and a non-fiction work, The Miracle Ship: Conversations with John Gillespie.

The Coven Murders is fast-paced, full of surprises, well plotted, and well researched. It’s also advisable not to read it at night.

Related:

My review of The Doom Murders.

My review of The 11:05 Murders

Top photograph by Jonathan Bowers via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“The 11:05 Murders” by Brian O’Hare

The body of a man in his early 30s is found in the man’s home, the body mutilated and his throat slit. Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan of the Belfast Police leads the investigating team, and finds a number of unusual things – a broken cufflink that doesn’t belong to the dead man, a watch deliberately stopped at 11:05, and a laptop with information about a young woman who committed suicide 12 years earlier.

Sheehan’s team includes a new detective sergeant, Denise Stevens. She’s transferred to the detective unit from a police station where she experienced verbal and physical abuse from her fellow (male) police officers. She finds an entirely different atmosphere with Sheehan’s team, and she brings a sharp mind and a new perspective. She also unknowingly brings a stalker.

Then there’s a second murder, and the list of possible suspects grows to include bankrupt property owners and a former IRA revolutionary turned thug businessman. Stevens is convinced, however, that the solution to the deaths lies in the past, and specifically around the Queens University college student who committed suicide following a brutal rape.

The 11:05 Murders is mystery writer Brian O’Hare’s second Inspector Sheehan novel, and it’s one that’s extremely difficult to put down. It sizzles with action, suspense, and more than a few nail-biting developments as you watch Sheehan and his team move and sometimes stumble towards a solution.

Brian O'Hare

O’Hare is a retired assistant director of a large regional college in Northern Ireland. The Doom Murders is the first Inspector Sheehan novel. He’s also written three Inspector Sheehan short stories, “Murder at Loftus House,” “Murder at the Roadside Café,” and “Murder at the Care Home;” a work of general fiction entitled Fallen Men; a memoir, A Spiritual Odyssey: A Diary of an Ordinary Catholic; and a non-fiction work, The Miracle Ship: Conversations with John Gillespie.

The 11:05 Murders is a fast-paced, highly entertaining, and well-written mystery. It’s good to know that a new entry in the Inspector Sheehan series, a short novel entitled The Coven Murders, will be published soon.

Related:

My review of The Doom Murders.

Top photograph: Queen’s University in Belfast, which plays a significant role in The 11:05 Murders.

“The Doom Murders” by Brian O’Hare

We know them as paintings of the Last Judgment, found in churches and museums all over the world but especially in Europe. Popular in the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods, these paintings depict their artists’ understanding of God’s last judgment, including many of the graphic and gory details. Not for nothing are they known as “Doom paintings.”

Who would have expected someone in 21^st century Belfast to use a Doom painting as a guide to serial murders?

Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan of the Belfast police is called to investigate the murder of a bishop. The man’s body has been found by the housekeeper, and it’s been stripped, stabbed in the pattern of a crucifix, and rather strangely arranged to depict or suggest – what? The only clue, if it is a clue, are some letters and numbers carved on the bishop’s desk.

Sheehan assembles his team of investigators, and together they manage to come up with nothing but dead ends. Then a second killing happens, and a third. There will be five in all. And possibly six, because Sheehan is getting too close to the killer.

The Doom Murders by Brian O’Hare blends police investigation procedure, church theology, the changes the church is experiencing, and a bit of art history into a fascinating tale of murder and retribution. And as Sheehan and his team learn more, including from the help of a monsignor who himself may or may not be a suspect, they find what is connecting a bishop, a school principal, a social worker, a legislator, and an abbess.

Brian O'Hare

O’Hare is a retired assistant director of a large regional college in Northern Ireland. In addition to The Doom Murders, he’s also written a second Jim Sheehan novel, The 11:05 Murders; three Inspector Sheehan short stories, “Murder at Loftus House,” “Murder at the Roadside Café,” and “Murder at the Care Home;” a work of general fiction entitled Fallen Men; a memoir, A Spiritual Odyssey: A Diary of an Ordinary Catholic; and a non-fiction work, The Miracle Ship: Conversations with John Gillespie.

The Doom Murders has received a number of writing awards, and it’s easy to see why. O’Hare has written a crisp, compelling story. We suffer with the police detective team during the early stages as it experiences one frustration after another, and then find ourselves gripping the sides of our chair as the solution and the killer’s identity gets closer and closer. It’s a vastly entertaining story.

Painting: The Last Judgment, oil on oak (1455-1450) by Roger Van Der Weyden, also known as the Beaune Altarpiece.