Being a veterinarian in Ireland makes for busy and chaotic days. I’m Doctor Dimpna Wilde. Before my life imploded, I had a sweet enough life in Dublin. I raised my son Ben, and was content in my marriage to Niall, we worked long hours and I loved my furry clients— the human ones are the ones who can and do cause trouble. And yes, of course, I have a pack of my own which includes two dogs— a bulldog named Guinness and a sheep dog named Pickles, and of course the leader of the trio is a black cat named Spike. I drive them around in a green and white VW bug I’ve owned since graduating from veterinarian college. No surprise, my first stop before reaching home was “The Valley of the Mad.” I do wonder if I should have tried harder to speak with that young girl I caught hiding behind a boulder. Not that I want to get caught up in anyone else’s drama. I’ve had more than my share lately. A year ago my husband took his own life, and now I’m back home where my father Eamon runs The Wilde’s Mixed Animal Practice Veterinarian Center. Or at least he did.

My name is Dimpna Wilde, and this is my messy, imperfect, chaotic life. My father is showing signs of dementia and both my parents are suspects in a murder inquiry. My trouble-making brother is living on a boat in the harbor. I’ve kept my now-grown son Ben away from Dingle. Long lost loves, ex-best friends, family secrets, and— did I mention the richest family in town hates us? The O’Reilly’s. And now their patriarch is dead. Murdered. The widow is on a rampage. I don’t even want to talk about Sean O’Reilly. I’ve lived most of my life trying to forget him, not an easy feat when you him staring back at you in the face of your son. . .

My impression of being back? The patients have taken over the asylum. The courtyard is overrun with animals, and the guards are here to speak with my father. I understand why they want to speak with him. A vial of veterinarian medication was found next to Johnny’s body and was traced to our clinic. Rumor has it my mother Maeve was having an affair with Johnny. My parents are estranged and Mam is living in the field next to our clinic in her caravan where she gives tarot card readings. Is a coincidence that a tarot card was found in Johnny’s pocket? And my ex best friend Sheila who was my father’s vet tech for many years has abandoned us for the other vet clinic in town. At least I still have the office manager Niamh. She’s a doll.

People often have a lot to say about me— and most of it not to my face. I’m short. I get that. I have to sit on phone books to see over the steering wheel, and I have to step on a stool in the examining rooms. But I’m the first person everyone calls when a door is locked and someone needs to get through the doggy-flap-door. When I wear my colorful dresses and wellies, and my hair in pig-tails, I’m mistaken for a child. A local paper once dubbed me a “miniature viking.” I have platinum blonde hair and mint-green eyes, and now that I’m 45 I don’t have to “behave” for anyone. Except for my clients of course, who do get all of my attention.

On a typical day I spay a dog or a cat, vaccinate a puppy, and then get called out to an emergency animal call— farmers tend to their own unless it’s an emergency or extremely unpleasant job— sheep and foot-rot for example, doesn’t that sound pleasant? On the one hand I like getting out of the office, on the other, if it’s a farm call, it’s probably going to be on the messy side. No worries, I have protective equipment, I scrub up well, and when you’ve had your arm up enough cow-arses, you no longer care what people think about you. Which is good because once I’m done here I have to head for the harbor and see why my brother Donnecha no longer knows how to answer a phone.

And no, I don’t care that the new Detective Inspector is scruffy and handsome, you don’t date the man who’s trying to put someone you love in prison. I would end with something cheeky like— “Or do you?” but I can tell you’re intelligent, Dear Reader, and I won’t do that to you. But I will say there’s no way on God’s green earth that one of my parents killed Johnny O’Reilly. Or did they? And in that case, what, if anything, am I going to do to protect them? I can answer that this way. This is Dingle. We’re close-knit. And we look out for our own.

No Strangers Here, A County Kerry #1
Genre: Traditional
Release: October 2022
Purchase Link

In the powerful tradition of Ann Cleeves and Louise Penny, USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor’s new series set in Ireland brings together complex characters and a fascinating setting, focusing on a female vet who returns home to the village where she grew up and must reckon with her past while untangling mysteries in the present.

On a rocky beach in the southwest of Ireland, the body of Jimmy O’Reilly, sixty-nine years old and dressed in a suit and his dancing shoes, is propped on a boulder, staring sightlessly out to sea. A cryptic message is spelled out next to the body with sixty-nine polished black stones and a discarded vial of deadly veterinarian medication lies nearby. Jimmy was a wealthy racehorse owner, known far and wide as The Dancing Man. In a town like Dingle, everyone knows a little something about everyone else. But dig a bit deeper, and there’s always much more to find. And when Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien is dispatched out of Killarney to lead the murder inquiry, he’s determined to unearth every last buried secret.

Dimpna Wilde hasn’t been home in years. As picturesque as Dingle may be for tourists in search of their roots and the perfect jumper, to her it means family drama and personal complications. In fairness, Dublin hasn’t worked out quite as she hoped either. Faced with a triple bombshell—her mother rumored to be in a relationship with Jimmy, her father’s dementia is escalating, and her brother is avoiding her calls—Dimpna moves back to clear her family of suspicion.

Despite plenty of other suspects, the guards are crawling over the Wildes. But the horse business can be a brutal one, and as Dimpna becomes more involved with her old acquaintances and haunts, the depth of lingering grudges becomes clear. Theft, extortion, jealousy and greed. As Dimpna takes over the family practice, she’s in a race with the detective inspector to uncover the dark, twisting truth, no matter how close to home it strikes . . .

About the author
Carlene O’Connor is the USA Today bestselling author of The Irish Village Mysteries, the Home to Ireland Mysteries, and now The County Kerry Mysteries. Her mysteries have been re-published in the UK, Germany, and Estonia. The Irish Village Mysteries have been optioned for television. (Fingers and toes crossed). Carlene currently lives in California and teaches a writing workshop while writing full time. She travels to Ireland as much as possible. No Strangers Here, the first in the County Kerry Mystery series was given a starred review by Kirkus.

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