Bought this book for Secret Santa mission. Merry Christmas Gypsysmom!

Merry Christmas to you 2012. Thank you for the book and the chocolates and the lovely postcard. I am so impressed that your postal system was able to get your package to Canada in less than 2 weeks. I have not read this book and I am looking forward to it.

Hope you got your White Christmas. We certainly have lots of it here.

This was a great book. Of course, I love everything Irish (I think there should be a word for that like eirophile or something but couldn't find anything in dictionaries I consulted) and this book is quintessentially Irish.

Francis Xavier Recaldo is the sole policeman in the town of South Passage, a fictional town located on the coast in County Cork. He was a police inspector in Dublin but suffered a heart attack and decided to quit the service. Except he didn't consult his wife about his decision and she didn't want to leave Dublin. To support himself and help support his two boys Frank decided to take this demotion to South Passage. Life is pretty laid back and he has time to learn to sail and also to fall in love. Unfortunately, his love, Cressida Sweeney, is married to another man. Her husband was a big time businessman in London until recently but his business deals went sour. Now Mr. Sweeney is around all the time and drinking lots as well. Sweeney loves to sail but has had to put his yacht up for sale to raise some much needed money. He also wants Cressida to sell the house which came to her as an inheritance. When Sweeney doesn't get his way he becomes physically aggressive. All this is the background when one of their neighbours, American art dealer Evangeline Murray, is found dead in her garden by John Spain, a fisherman going out early one morning. Frank informs the police in Cork but while he is waiting for them to arrive he finds a comb that he recognizes as belonging to Cressida. He hides it but the whole time he is helping the Cork officers he wonders what Cressida was doing in Evangeline's garden. He is also good friends with John Spain who found Evangeline and who appears to be a prime suspect in the murder.

The murder is only one of the mysteries that has to be solved in this book. And I found that some of the details were not completely fleshed out. However, there was some wonderful writing. I loved this passage from p. 172:
On the opposite bank, at the very edge of the water, perky little dunlins dipped their heads in time to their rickety gait. A flock of late swallows swooped low over the rim of dead seaweed deposited by the tide. It was coloured pink and green, vibrant against the endless muted variation of the grey-brown stones. The fickle sun shone on the rolling hills, picking out the autumnal colours: gold, purple tinged the brown.

I see there is a sequel to this book, Following the Wake. I will have to see if I can lay my hands on it now.

Thank you my Secret Santa for this great find. I will be passing this on to my sister to read.

My sister read the book and I decided to take it to the Winnipeg meet-up tonight. Apparently my description was intriguing because day-zee took it home with her. This is a release for the 2008 Keep Them Moving challenge.

Thanks gypsysmom!

I'm gonna keep my eyes out for the sequel and read them back to back. Then maybe I'll send them on a bookray together :)

Purging the bookshelf. Too many books!

This will be released soon.

RELEASE NOTES:

Bringing to tonights Winnipeg Bookcrossers Meeting. If no one wants this one, I will leave it behind somewhere.

I took this book home from t our latest wpgbookxing meetup, this time at the Neighbourhood Bookshpo and Cafe. I think we have made a decision about where we would like our new OBCZ location, and, no, the last place is not the first choice - wish us luck in getting the OK.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Walking on water, flying through the air - what next for this book?

I work at the lost and found a cleaner brought me the book I plan to read then release