Lake of Sorrows: A Novel [Paperback]

The bogs of the Irish midlands reveal their secrets in all due time, more often now that the landscape is being increasingly carved up by the local farmers. As the turf is cut and dried to be burnt as a fuel, there is occasionally a find that excites archaeologists and the scandal lovers alike. When two bodies turn up in the peat bogs in as many days, both showing signs that they were victims of ritualized killings, the community is given something delicious to talk about.

Visiting American pathologist Nora Gavin is called in because of her past experience. The opportunity to examine hands on another peat bog body is an opportunity not to be missed in the name of research. The second recent find is not however that ancient and is quickly identified as belonging to a family that still live and work in the area. In this myth soaked area of Ireland the paganistic rite of a "triple" death is not unusual, but to find a body slain in such a manner with an estimated date of death to be only twenty or so years ago, it takes the find from being considered historically curious, to threatening.

"Lake of Sorrows" is full of characters that really need their own novels to fully explore their murky pasts and how they got to be all together in one secluded little Irish town. Hart needs to either write longer saga length novels or tone down some of the melodrama to keep the focus on her two protagonists and the crime at hand. In providing a lead for the third novel in the series Hart has her character in Dr Gavin behaving like a teenager in her rejection of her Irish lover Cormac Macguire who we expected to become the love of her life at the end of "Haunted Ground."

Hart excels at keeping up the dark and sombre mood; everyone has their secrets, and everyone has their burdens of sadness to carry. "Lake of Sorrows" treads in the shadows. It is a mystery novel that is light on plot, though soaked with rich and memorable characterization in its secondary and introductory characters. The third novel promises to take the action out of the bogs and into the U.S. so it will be interesting to see if this will lighten up the tone of this grim though beautifully evocative series.

The centuries old mystery of the Irish midland peat bogs are bought to life in this engaging thriller from author, Erin Hart. The bogs are full of secrets. To ancient people they were a strange liminal region, half water and half earth - the center of the world. A holy place, a burial ground, a safe for stowing treasure, and a region of spirits.

Recently the bogs have been relinquished to feed the ever-growing hunger for electric power, the men have gone to work on them devising more efficient ways to harvest peat. As the turf is cut and dried, to be burnt as a fuel, there is occasionally a find that enthuses archaeologists.

When Dublin archaeologist Cormac Maguire and anatomy lecturer Nora Gavin return to the wilds of the Irish countryside, they discover one such find. Two bodies are excavated: one an Iron Age bog body, revealed to have been in the bog for thousands of years, the other is the body of a man discovered to have a modern wristwatch on his arm. But both show signs they were victims of ritualized killings, or murders that looked like ritual killings.

This is an area that is soaked in ancient myths and age-old recriminations, and police detective Liam Ward, who knows the history of the area, is perplexed that the bodies were slain in such a manner. With an estimated date of death to be only twenty or so years ago, Ward, helped by Nora and Cormac, must work to discover the true identity of the modern man who was buried beneath the bog.

The newly discovered body is identified as Danny Brazil, a champion hurler who was believed to have emigrated to Australia twenty-five years ago. Before he disappeared, Danny and his brother Dominic were awarded a substantial reward for their discovery of the Loughnabrone hoard, a priceless collection of gold. The hoard contained the Broighter collar, a gold neck ring from the first century BC, an unbelievable find that was also considered invaluable. Soon after, however, the hoard containing the collar inexplicably vanished.

In unraveling the fate of Danny and the mysterious Broighter collar, Hart has assembled an eclectic and varied collection of suspects: There's Dominic's son, Charlie, a shy, reclusive loner who is quietly obsessed with bee keeping. Is Danny a misfit, or just one of those unfortunate people whose odd behaviour naturally draws suspicion? Teresa Brazil, Dominic's wife, hides secrets of the past, and hates living amongst "a landscape of soaking ground and dark drains slowly bleeding life away."

Does a young mute young woman named Brona, who once witnessed her sister's suicide, know something more than she's letting on?And what of Ursula Downes, fellow archaeologist and rapacious vamp? Ursula has recently been raising eyebrows because of her clandestine, kinky affair with Owen Cadogan, the bitter, misogynistic, and very married bog manager. There's also Rachel Briscoe, and an enigmatic young student who hates Ursula with a passion and spies on her at night.

As the story unfolds, Hart reveals a plot that is as complicated as a Chinese Box, waiting to be opened, to confound, and to mystify. It soon becomes clear that the Brazils were a dark family, and darkness seemed to eminate from their very souls, from the secretive habits and closed doors, the walls that constantly built up between them.

Hart excels at keeping up this shadowy and solemn mood; everyone has their secrets, and everyone has their burdens of sadness to carry. In Lake of Sorrows, lives are confined by narrow roads closed in by hedges and ditches and ivy-choked oak trees, hemmed in by a place that is perpetually dark, secret and damp. It's where the bog peat can enter your very pores, filling you up with darkness.

But Hart never forgets that she's writing a mystery. She has a sharp and experienced eye for police procedural and the technical aspects of autopsy. The second half of the novel is a race against consequences, as a second murder is committed, another ritualistic killing, full of blood-spattered mayhem. Cormac becomes a prime suspect, and Nora finds herself face-to-face with a murderous monster who believes that death is a "sacrificial privilege."

The plot of Lake of Sorrows is full of surprising twists and turns, with an inexorably mounting tension; it's somewhat like walking the bog; you have to be very careful where you put a foot down, in case you sink in. Mike Leonard June 05.

Lake of Sorrows is Erin Hart's second book that features Nora Gavin, a pathologist that has knack for getting mixed up in murders and tangled scenarios that make for some great reading. I must admit that I had no idea there was a book written prior to reading this, yet it I didn't feel it kept me from enjoying this fully as the story was strong on its own. One of the best parts of this book is the rich and detailed description of Ireland, focusing on the Loughnabrone Bog as a place of mystery and gruesome hidden secrets that sank as fast as the muddy sand that swallowed up jewels and people with no one to hear the last screams. The foggy and misty feel of the country side with it's wet bogs, forests and magnificent pastures swept through my head as the writer described everything so eloquently with much passion. This tale of murder, lost treasure, love triangles and archaeological excavations that educated us about the Iron Age Celtic culture, as that history wasn't written, only recorded on jewels and weapons found in the sunken bog along with bodies of sacrificial origin, murmured to be called a Triple Death from Britain and the Continent, found from Gallagh, Galway and Lounghabrone.

Nora Gavin has suffered through an event from the previous story, and was out in Loughnabrone at an archaeological dig in the bog of a man believed to been sacrificed over a hundred years ago. She slowly discovers secrets and hidden relationships between teams of people from the University and other expedicitonal teams that end up adding bodies into the watery bogs. The story has many interesting characters, some good and some who hate and cheat and even murder. I was extremely interested in watching their separate stories cross paths with each other, like a piece of fabric woven with tales of love and hate and what happened when Nora forced by events around her must get to the bottom of hidden treasures and missing people in order to free her boyfriend who seems involved and to save her own life as she stumbles in the path of danger. This was not only a murder mystery but a tale of love and relationships, about people who only start caring for someone after they have been murdered, because when they were alive no one cared and for life's lessons that my eyes read through hungrily.

I don't know how people could have found it boring for I was pulled into the story until I finally read it to the end, and i would try to go to bed but would pick the book up, read it then try and go to sleep only to do it two more times. I liked and cared for Nora and Cormack, her boyfriend, I detested Ursula Downes who was sneaky and out after every man, especially the taken ones, and for Ward, the detective, Charlie Brazil a bog worker with secrets and hidden containers with clues to the tale and the many minor and major characters who made it for a head spinning tale of intrigue, as guessing who did it was hard, so many people have done something very interesting that kept adding fuel to the fire it was hard to see who wasn't guilty. I recommend this for a nice summer read, filled with beautiful language, fresh scenery and constantly building intrigue.

I have all ready purchased Haunted Ground, Hart's first book and plan on reading it soon, as it give more roots to Nora Gavin and her past.

-Kasia S.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 17 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars