A sadistic serial killer, the weapon a deadly virus Dublin, Ireland and Richmond, Virginia: separated by thousands of miles - linked by murder. For Dr Kay Scarpetta a lecture stint in Ireland provides the perfect opportunity to find out if the murders on both sides of the Atlantic are indeed connected. Five dismembered, beheaded bodies were found in Ireland five years ago - now four have been discovered in the States. But the tenth corpse in Virginia is different. There are vital discrepancies, and an indication that the elderly victim was already seriously ill.
It's summertime, and Regan Reilly is called back home from Los Angeles to the Hamptons on New York's Long Island to protect her friend Brigid O'Neill, an up-and-coming country singer with a knack for fiddling who'll be performing at the local Melting Pot Music Festival. Brigid has been given a legendary old fiddle by Ireland's champion fiddler, Malachy Sheerin, but legend has it that to take this fiddle out of Ireland will bring bad luck to the owner. Multimillionaire Chappy Tinka wants the instrument, which bears the initials C.T., and he's prepared to do anything to claim it for himself.
Private Investigator Regan Reilly and her husband Jack, head of the Major Case Squad in New York City, have just gotten hitched! They've headed to Hennessey Castle, a romantic spot in western Ireland, to escape the world and the criminals they deal with daily. But their getaway is anything but relaxing!
Grade 5-8 Nita Callahan, a 14-year-old wizard from Long Island, is annoyed when her concerned parents ship her off to Ireland for six weeks on an enforced vacation from magic-working and her partner Kit?but what's time or space to wizards (see So You Want to Be a Wizard [1996] and its sequels [all Harcourt]). In any case, Ireland is hardly the ideal spot for a magic-free getaway, and indeed Nita soon finds herself involved in big doings.
