Crime reporters are essentially detectives--at least that's one takeaway from Claire Coughlan's ambitious and fine-woven Where They Lie. In this debut mystery, set in 1968 Dublin, "lady reporter" Nicoletta Sarto's dutiful story-chasing gradually becomes indistinguishable from dogged crime-solving.
It's two days before Christmas, and Nicoletta is at her desk at the Irish Sentinel when an inspector phones to report that a skeleton has been found in a suburban garden. A wedding ring confirms that the skeleton was once Julia Bridges, an actress who has been missing since 1943; she was last seen entering St. Bridget's Maternal Nursing Home. St. Bridget's was the workplace of now-deceased midwife Gloria Fitzpatrick, who was convicted of murder in connection with an "induced miscarriage gone wrong" several years after Julia's disappearance. The police are convinced that Gloria killed Julia; Nicoletta isn't. Under the guise of needing to fulfill her journalistic obligations, Nicoletta proceeds to sleuth around for the truth about Julia's death, unearthing secrets along the way while also revealing some of her own.
Coughlan nimbly captures a place and time before reproductive rights were routinely discussed, let alone words attached to a movement. It was also a time when women who pursued careers were something of an oddity: Nicoletta's mother questions whether her daughter has "the right sort of job for a young lady." If Where They Lie sometimes over-depends on coincidence, this shouldn't prevent readers from returning for the forecasted next installment in what promises to be a distinguished and socially conscious historical series. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer