Lake of Sorrows by
Erin Hart
hbk out November 04
Published by Hodder
at £18.99
In Erin Hart's second novel pathologist Dr. Nora Gavin, still mourning her murdered sister
Triona, is part of a team investigating a centuries-old body unearthed from the peat bogs of
Loughnabrone (the Lake of Sorrows of the title). Before long another body is unearthed, its
cause of death remarkably similar to that of the prehistoric corpse – the ritualistic triple death,
whereby the victim is garrotted, has its throat cut and finally is drowned. The preservative
peat has done a wonderful job, but as this corpse is wearing a wrist-watch it proves a fairly
quick job to identify it as that of Danny Brazil, whose family and friends believed him to have
emigrated to Australia 25 years ago. Hot on the heels of the second corpse comes a third, a
woman killed in her own bath but with all the attributes of a ritual killing present, and thus the
killing escalates until by the dénouement the body count has gone off the scale. By this time
Nora herself, working to establish the identity of the killer in order to clear her lover
(archaeologist Cormac Maguire) of suspicion, is in the gravest of danger and escapes death
by a whisker.
Both Nora and Cormac are under the shadow of both Nora's personal loss and their previous
case, Nora's grief exacerbated by the fact that her sister's killer has evaded justice. This novel
is sorrowful indeed, many of the characters grieving for loved ones recently or not so recently
deceased, and at least one traumatised by loss. But it's a story with balance, partnerships are
sought and won, and the end-notes of the personal relationships are uplifting; although Nora
must return to the States where her widowed brother-in-law is about to re-marry, her
relationship with Cormac is secure and both know that she will return.
Lake of Sorrows by
Erin Hart
