The Deadly Weed by Cora Harrison

Reverend Mother Mystery #10

240 pages

Publisher: Severn House

Publication Date: March 7, 2023

 

Blurb

The Reverend Mother's investigative skills are called into action when a local tobacco factory burns down and fingers are pointed at one of her ex pupils...

1920s. Cork, Ireland. Early one morning the Reverend Mother receives news of a deadly fire at the local cigarette factory, a place where she'd been so proud that some of her pupils had been given a steady job. In a city full of poverty, unemployment and political unrest, these ex pupils of hers had surely been blessed with such prospects. Now, though, she is worried . . . What happened at the cigarette factory and why are there rumours circulating that one of her 'girls' was responsible?

Inspector Patrick Cashman is under pressure to quickly find the cause of the fire - and identify a suspect - to placate the visiting Lord Mayor and Commissioner and secure his hopes of promotion. Patrick turns to his friend, the journalist and law student Eileen MacSweeney, for help, along with the ever insightful and calm Reverend Mother. From the fog-ridden streets of the slums to the green pastures and prosperity of nearby Youghal, together they begin to unravel a seedy history of greed, ambition and a desire for power.

 

Review

It has been a while, but I read mysteries by Cora Harrison in the past. I was a huge fan of her historical Burren mysteries and especially the main character Mara, Brehon of the Burren. Which explains why I got very excited when I discovered The Deadly Weed on Netgalley and why I didn’t hesitate before requesting the book.

Like The Burren Mysteries, the Reverend Mother series is set in the past. But, while the Burren stories take place centuries ago, the Reverend Mother investigates during the first quarter of the last century at a time when WW I and the Irish War of Independence were still fresh in everybody’s mind and Ireland was struggling to make the transition from occupied land to independent nation.

The Reverend Mother lives and works close to Cork’s harbour in an area of great poverty and deprivation. She runs a school for children from the poorest areas of Cork in an effort to give them a start in life and an opportunity to lift themselves out of the abject poverty they were born into. When a relative of hers opens a cigarette factory in Cork and needs employees with nimble fingers, the Reverend Mother is delighted when she manages to secure a job for six of her former pupils. Her delight turns to deep concern when, after the factory is set alight and the overseer dies from smoke inhalation, one of those girls is accused of setting the fire and causing the death.

Officially the crime is being investigated by Patrick Cashman, also a former pupil of the Reverend Mother’s. He finds his efforts hampered by politics and even the assistance of Eileen MacSweeney, another successful ‘graduate’ from the Reverend Mother’s school does little except deepen his worry that he has sent a young girl to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

In the end, it is up to the Reverend Mother to figure out what happened and why even if it means digging into her own family’s past.

I enjoyed this book and for once I’m not sure if it is the mystery or the surrounding story I enjoyed most. The mystery was more than intriguing enough to keep my interest and the solution was both satisfying and plausible. What’s more, the clues were there for the (astute) reader to pick up on and I am happy to say that I was more than halfway there myself when the solution was presented.

The historical setting, the ins and outs of convent life, the descriptions of the Cork slums, and the insight into the emergence of the Irish police force (the Garda) intrigued me as much as the mystery though. It is at times hard to believe that only 100 years ago Ireland was at the start of its journey as an independent country, and the descriptions in this book brought the situation at the time into full and at times horrific focus.

This is not a thrill-a-minute sort of story. In fact, there didn’t seem to be a lot of urgency to solving of this crime, and there weren’t any hard-stopping moments or confrontational scenes. The quiet pace of this story and the thoughtful manner in which the Reverend Mother dealt with both this crime and her day-to-day activities seemed to fit the setting and her character perfectly. The cast of secondary characters was delightful because it featured personas both from the top and from the bottom layers of society. The writing in this book is beautiful and the details shared are wonderfully balanced with dialogue and descriptions.

As I said at the start, it has been some time since I last read a Cora Harrison book. I won’t wait as long before I pick up another title by her this time around.