I absolutely love the “Irish” series of books by Andrew Greeley. He was the subject of one of my Author Information posts, and is absolutely one of my favorite authors. He was a Catholic Priest (he has passed away) and wrote many books that were full of mystery and suspense. You would never know he was a priest from reading his books, so if you have never read his work before, you should really try one of his books. It is not all religion and scriptures. At all!
His Irish series are centered on Nuala Anne McGrail, her husband Dermot Michael Coyne, and their children. The number of children increases as you continue through the series! There is always mystery, danger of lives lost, and also a good amount of history about Ireland. Not the boring history though, just the good stuff!
In Irish Tweed, Dermot is pouring over the memoir of a woman from Galway, who came to America after her family died in the famine. While Dermot is doing this, Nuala and her teenage daughter are knee deep in taekwondo classes, thanks to the bullies at the school across the street from their home.
The backstory of the Galway woman weaves in with the current plot of the story, which seems to put the family right in the middle of tensions from days gone by.
I have to say, I read so many of these books right in a row, that I began talking with the Irish dialect that is prevalent throughout the Irish series of books. It took a while to stop doing it, and people looked at me weird when I said something that sounded off-the-wall to them. Such as, instead of saying “yes”, I would say “’tis true.” People who irritate are called eejits. It was rather embarrassing, but there are 12 books in this series and I read them within less than a couple months.
I highly recommend giving one of the books in this series a try. Once you do, I promise you will need to read them all!
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