Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy

I guess I shouldn't be shocked that a writer that died two years ago has a new book out.  After all Tupac Shakur has a musical in development on Broadway and Dick Francis and Anne McCaffrey are still writing books (with their offspring) well after their deaths!  That said, I still wanted to read the new Maeve Binchy!

This collection of short stories reads more like a set of sketches for future books- some of the stories are more developed than others. My favorites in this collection are the tale a lonely widow and the builder hired to renovate the house next door and the story of four women who decide to buy a house together. Some of the stories' main characters appear in the background of other stories and all the stories have a satisfying resolution. I'd recommend this collection for hardcore Maeve Binchy fans only.  384 pages.

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart

In this intriguing mystery set in present day Ireland, there are two mysteries to solve; one from the present, and one from the 1600s.  The tale is set in motion when an Irish farmer unearths the head of a red-headed woman buried in the peat bog.  An archaeologist and a pathologist are called in to determine the origins of the woman.  Peat bogs prevent decay, so when the head is uncovered, it is unknown when it may have been buried - two years ago, or two hundred?  The farmer and the neighbors are at first wondering if the woman might be the missing wife of a local estate owner, who is suspected of murdering his wife and young child.  Cormac Maguire, the archaeologist, and Nora Gavin, an American pathologist, set out to investigate the buried head, but their work gets them more and more entwined with the locals and the present day mystery. The Irish setting is strongly portrayed, and provides an eerie mood to the piece.  326 pages

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

I was so sad to read Maeve Binchy's last book!  I will miss her stories of ordinary, good people.  I always read her books for comfort and this last book did not disappoint me.  A woman comes back to her Irish home town after living many years in the U.S.A.  She buys the ancestral home of the local gentry and turns it into a hotel.  Everyone involved in the hotel gets a chance to tell their story.  A very satisfying read! 325 pages.