From Publishers Weekly
  "In Greeley's cute ninth Nuala Anne McGrail novel (after 2005's Irish Cream), beautiful Nuala Anne, who's fey, wakes one morning in a particularly dark mood from a nightmare prefiguring disaster. Soon after, a car bombing strikes the powerful Curran family and sends ripples through Chicago's Irish-American community. Nuala Anne sends Dermot Coyne, her handsome husband, to consult a document, written by an Irish priest who witnessed the execution of Irish patriot Robert Emmet in 1803, which she intuits may help with the crisis caused by the car bombing. Meanwhile, Nuala Anne must cope with a host of other challenges, including the threat from the Homeland Security Department to deport her back to Ireland. Greeley's lovable part-time sleuths always deliver, but here he has almost too much going on. The shifts in Irish dialects, Dermot's internal asides and the document extracts can confuse the uninitiated. Greeley displays two very different families, the Currans and Nuala Anne's, which, like the best crystal on close examination, reveals one badly cracked, while the other shines on brightly".

(Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved. .

Reader Reviews

  "Fast paced paranormal thriller, Dermot, the husband of the beautiful, enticing and caring Nuala Annie McGrail, adores his fey wife. Her mystic powers have led them into solving mysteries that have saved lives and brought criminals to justice. When Nuala Annie wakes up screaming about spies being around them, Dermot knows that her dream is a vision and they will be plunged into another mystery very soon. At a party celebrating that Nuala Anne has finally becoming a citizen, an explosion rocks the foundation of the building; Nuala knows that the home of John and Estelle Curran just blew up. Having recently had dinner with the Currans, Nuala and her husband want to help them; they get a chance to do so when the couple, on the advice of a detective (who knows Nuala's history), ask for their assistance. Two more attempts are made on the family and Nuala realizes someone is spying on them. With the information Dermot collects from the various family members she tries to figure out who it is but there is a plethora of suspects. There is plenty of action and excitement in this exciting who-done-it.

  Andrew M Greeley's heroine, a mystic, singer, wife, mother and investment counselor accountant is a total charmer with her husband as totally enamored of and bemused by her as is readers. There are enough colorful suspects to keep the reader guessing who the spy is until the author the chooses to reveal that person's identity in this fast paced paranormal thriller".   -- February 8, 2006 Reviewer:  Harriet Klausner

  “There’s evil people around, Dermot love. . . . I knew about them even before me dream. Really evil people. Won’t we have to fight them!”

This latest tale of Nuala Anne McGrail, the engagingly fey heroine of such irresistible books as Irish Cream and Irish Lace, begins with a foreboding dream of some terrible impending evil. Dermot Michael Coyne, Nuala’s adoring husband and spear-carrier, knows better than to ignore his wife’s second sight, but from whence does this nameless peril originate?

From the Homeland Security goons determined to deport the Irish-born Nuala on the basis of nothing more than vague suspicions and accusations?
From the spiteful neighbors campaigning against their family’s beloved Irish wolfhounds?
Or from the tangled dealings of the Currans, a prosperous clan of Irish-American aristocrats, with whom Nuala and Dermot have recently become acquainted?

  The true danger becomes shockingly apparent when a catastrophic car-bombing rocks the Chicago riverfront. Uncovering the twisted minds behind the bombing is not easy; Dermot and Nuala soon find themselves enmeshed in a complicated tapestry of lies and secrets. Nuala’s preternatural instincts also lead her to a forgotten manuscript revealing the treachery and deceit behind a tragic chapter in Irish history: the saga of bold Robert Emmet and the failed uprisings of 1798 and 1803.

  Between the past and the present, our heroine and her devoted spouse have more than enough mysteries to contend with, but the two of them are bound to make the truth just as clear as . . . Irish Crystal.

“The prolific cleric plops his psychic singer heroine and her family into a delightful stew of trouble in his latest crowd pleaser. . . . The double plot is rich with detail, while the couple’s earnestness and good intentions are never in question.”--Publishers Weekly on Irish Stew!

“A love story as much as a mystery, with Greeley portraying Chicago’s middle-class Irish-American ethnics with flair, dignity, and affection for their lilting speech.”--Chicago Sun-Times on Irish Lace

“The comical banter between Dermot and Nuala cleverly gives the reader insight into their Irish heritage as well as their Catholic faith.”--Romantic Times on Irish Stew!

  In Greeley's cute ninth Nuala Anne McGrail novel (after 2005's Irish Cream), beautiful Nuala Anne, who's fey, wakes one morning in a particularly dark mood from a nightmare prefiguring disaster. Soon after, a car bombing strikes the powerful Curran family and sends ripples through Chicago's Irish-American community.

  Nuala Anne sends Dermot Coyne, her handsome husband, to consult a document, written by an Irish priest who witnessed the execution of Irish patriot Robert Emmet in 1803, which she intuits may help with the crisis caused by the car bombing. Meanwhile, Nuala Anne must cope with a host of other challenges, including the threat from the Homeland Security Department to deport her back to Ireland. Greeley's lovable part-time sleuths always deliver, but here he has almost too much going on. The shifts in Irish dialects, Dermot's internal asides and the document extracts can confuse the uninitiated.

  Greeley displays two very different families, the Currans and Nuala Anne's, which, like the best crystal on close examination, reveals one badly cracked, while the other shines on brightly. (Feb.)

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