THE DEADLY WEED

A suspicious death at a cigarette factory provides a thorny case for three very different crime solvers.

Ten years after Ireland’s war for independence, native-born Irish are on the ladder to success. Inspector Patrick Cashman grew up poor but is on track to be appointed Superintendent of the Cork Garda when a call comes in from Mrs. Maloney, a well-known snoop who reports a murder at a cigarette factory. Although Timothy Dooley, the factory's manager, died from smoke inhalation, Mrs. Maloney thinks one of the girls who works there may be a killer. The Reverend Mother, the daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family whose cousin owns the factory, has obtained jobs there for 10 of her former students, all so poor that even the meager salary is a godsend to their families. But now one of them is in trouble. Patrick—a former student of the Reverend Mother’s, who’s helped him solve many a crime—is appalled when his boss orders him to arrest defiant 14-year-old Maureen McCarthy. The late Mr. Dooley had worked for factory owner Robert Murphy for a long time, mostly at his estate in Youghal, where the tobacco is grown, and before he'd moved to Cork he'd been accused of impregnating the gardener’s daughter. The Reverend Mother’s star pupil, ambitious law student and part-time reporter Eileen McSweeney, abhors injustice and teams up with Patrick and the Reverend Mother to solve the perplexing case.

A complex mystery and an indictment of the treatment of the poor add up to a sobering yet enjoyable read.