Truthfully? I’d rather be left alone to think through the next step in my nonexistent plan. I’m winging it. Not to mention I arrived here in County Clare, Ireland, yesterday. Jet lag has laid its sleep-deprived caul over me, but I couldn’t nap if I tried. Instead, I sit here in a medieval churchyard. The gravestone beneath “me arse,” as the locals would say, has long ago lost its engraved name to the ripping Atlantic winds. County Clare lies in the far west of Ireland. It’s a nothing of a county, desolate, and has little to lend itself except sheep, endless rock walls, crumbling ruins…
Actually, that’s not entirely true. County Clare is home to Lisfenora village and its annual matchmaking festival that starts next week. More importantly for me, this county is home to the charismatic matchmaker, Liam Donellan.
I have yet to meet him, but I shall. I must. It’s imperative. This is what I’m thinking about today, this man who has defined my life without my knowing it until a few months ago. I must get the lay of the land and figure out the best way to approach him.
He’s my biological father, you see. I discovered this fact under traumatic circumstances that I’d rather not get into right now. This new fact about my existence hit me like a two-by-four to the head, and I’ve still got the psychic lump to show for it. Suffice to say that I’m here under duress, compelled from beyond the grave and by memories of my mom’s life-long unhappiness.
I do know a few things about this famous matchmaker from my mom’s journal, which I also discovered a few months ago. She visited the festival as a travel writer during the 1970s. Liam started out as a subject for her article.
Liam the Lion, as he’s often called, plants himself in the plaza with a gigantic ledger on his lap. Gold leaf gleams under mild sunlight, and the calfskin cover creaks when Liam opens the book. Upon thick parchment he scribbles crucial data about each supplicant . . .
But soon enough she lost her journalistic objectivity. She used to meet Liam where I sit now, in this crumbling ruin of a churchyard. Our Lady of the Kilmoon Church the signpost reads, a tourist attraction without the tourists.
Kilmoon Church stood in genteel isolation, open air to the night as if shrugging off its Christian ties and embracing a more benevolent lunar goddess. The church seemed to watch us, indulging us our frail humanity and our unseemly trespass. We strolled around the site, taking in the uneven stones and skinny windows, the crumbling gravestones and tall Celtic crosses.
So here I sit within the church’s rock-wall perimeter trying to absorb the past, trying to gather my courage. Kilmoon hides many secrets. She’s a shady lady too well versed in death—could it be that her ancient stone walls pine for yet more burials within her grounds?
I pray not even as I sense shadows lurking, forces gathering from the past not to mention modern forces from within the village. Something bad’s about to go down. The bad lurks on the horizon like weighted storm clouds. I know this like I know that Liam, my new father, will be at the heart of it all.
You can find out more about Lisa’s KILMOON blog tour on her website.
You can read more about Merrit in Kilmoon, the first book in the “County Clare” mystery series, published by Muskrat Press. The series also features Detective Sergeant Danny Ahern, who has troubles of his own. Books are available at retail and online booksellers.
Book description: Californian Merrit Chase travels to Ireland to meet her father, a celebrated matchmaker, in hopes that she can mend her troubled past. Instead, her arrival triggers a rising tide of violence, and Merrit finds herself both suspect and victim, accomplice and pawn, in a manipulative game that began thirty years previously. When she discovers that the matchmaker’s treacherous past is at the heart of the chaos, she must decide how far she will go to save him from himself—and to get what she wants, a family.
GIVEAWAY: Comment on this post by 6pm EST on March 21, and you will be entered to win a copy of Kilmoon. One winner will be chosen at random. Unless specified, U.S. entries only.
Meet the author
Lisa Alber received an Elizabeth George Foundation writing grant based on an early version of Kilmoon, in 
addition to a Walden Fellowship. In addition, Ms. George asked Lisa to write a short story for Two of the Deadliest: New Tales of Lust, Greed, and Murder from Outstanding Women of Mystery (HarperCollins). She featured Lisa’s story in an “Introducing…” section for up-and-coming novelists.
Hard to imagine it now, but Lisa worked in international finance and book publishing before exchanging the corporate ladder for storytelling. Ever distractible, you may find her staring out windows, dog walking, fooling around online, or drinking red wine. Ireland, books, animals, photography, and blogging round out her distractions. Lisa lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Visit Lisa at www.lisaalber.com. She blogs at Lisa Alber’s Words at Play and on The Debutante Ball, a blog for debut authors. Also visit her on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow dru’s book musing on Facebook for book giveaways, contests, posting about discounted books and some of my reading musings.
I’m very much looking forward to reading this book. I wish her the best with it.
This sounds really interesting. I’d love to read it! Thank you for the giveaway!
Count me in on anything Celtic. This sounds like a promising new series and will be adding it to my list!
I am looking forward to this series!
Sounds like a great book. Maybe I could jump into the pages, a matchmaking feast, I could use one of those lol
Sounds very intriguing!
Very interesting series. Thanks for the review.
Thanks for hosting me, Dru!
My Irish blood is urging me to read this book. Please enter me in your contest.
suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
Sounds very interesting. Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
I do love a good Irish Tale. Dru, please dust off my hat and toss it into the ring.
What a remarkable introduction to this story. Makes the reader want to jump right in. Thank you.
Ok, after reading that, I’m hooked, I have to know what happens. Thanks for the chance to win. Btw I love the cover.
I’ve never visited Ireland but this book sounds like an admirable way to take an armchair trip. Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy.
Matchmaking is something different in a mystery. Sounds interesting!
Having visited that part of Ireland I would love to start reading a mystery series based there.
You had me at Ireland. I’m in. Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks, everyone!
A matchmaking festival sounds very interesting.
What a unique story and great location. All of this together makes for a wonderful sounding book that I would very much like to read. Thank you for the giveaway.
Cynthia
I like the sound of this and would enjoy reading it.
It sounds like a wonderful book. I love that it is set in Ireland, it makes for a very interesting read. Thanks for having the giveaway.
Added this one to my tbr list. Looks like a great new series. Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
a new-to-me author!!!!
thank you for the giveaway!!
This author is new to me. Book sounds good! Thanks for the chance to win.
contest is closed.