Collins-Burke Mystery series by Anne Emery
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Overview: Anne Emery is a graduate of St. F.X. University and Dalhousie Law School. She has worked as a lawyer, legal affairs reporter, and researcher. Apart from reading and writing, her interests include music, philosophy, architecture, travel and Irish history. She lives in Halifax with her husband and daughter.
Genre: Fiction > Mystery/Thriller
1. Sign of the Cross (2006)
Defense attorney Monty Collins is handed the biggest case of his career: defending a priest accused of murder. But when the priest is reluctant to contribute to help his cause (not to mention extremely secretive about his past), Monty takes the unusual step of investigating his own client. And he finds a lot more than he bargained for. This debut novel, set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, benefits from its setting: the plot may be relatively familiar to legal-thriller fans, but the unfamiliar locale freshens up the story considerably. Readers who know the setting, too, will enjoy playing spot-the-landmark, as the author solidly anchors her story in the landscapes. Collins may not be a blindingly original character, but he’s solidly built, and we like spending time with him. The novel’s final paragraph seems to guarantee a sequel, and this isn’t bad news.
2. Obit (2007)
After clearing Father Brennan Burke of murder charges in 2006’s Sign of the Cross, Canadian criminal lawyer Monty Collins helps the priest explore his father’s history with the IRA in this fresh second installment of a three-part series. Before Monty, his family and Brennan leave Halifax for New York, where Brennan will officiate at the wedding of his niece, Brennan’s brother Patrick sends him a cryptic obituary that appeared in a New York paper. Their father, Declan Burke, who fled Ireland 40 years earlier, understands it as a threat to his life, and sure enough, Declan is shot and wounded at the wedding. While Monty struggles with his own hopes of reconciling with his ex-wife, Brennan and his siblings search for the truth about their father’s past and harbor suspicions that could shatter their large, tight-knit family. Emery tops her vivid story of past political intrigue that could destroy the present with a surprising conclusion.
3. Barrington Street Blues (2008)
A rich man and a poor man are found dead of gunshot wounds outside a seedy bar on Barrington Street. The police declare it a murder-suicide, but bluesman/lawyer Monty Collins suspects it’s a double murder. Helped by his friend, Father Brennan Burke, and hindered by his femme fatale law partner, Felicia Morgan, Monty explores the dark side of Halifax society: hookers, drug addicts, boozers, gamblers and people desperate to cover up a series of parties that got way out of hand. A threat of blackmail, and turmoil with his estranged wife Maura, have Monty singing the blues, lashing out at his closest friends, and spending far too much time in the bars of Halifax.
4. Cecilian Vespers (2009)
Lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins is used to defending murderers – and occasionally investigating murders himself – but he’s never come up against anything like the case of Reinhold Schellenberg, a world-renowned German theologian who has been found dead on the altar of an old church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saint Cecilia’s day. The controversial priest, once a top insider in the Vatican, was known to provoke strong feelings in Catholics of all ideological stripes, and now those feelings have overflowed with horrifying results. At least Monty knows where to look for clues; his friend Father Brennan Burke has just opened a choir school at the church, and the students provide an international cast of suspects – including a flamboyant Sicilian priest, an eccentric English monk, a disgruntled American, a Vatican enforcer, a church lady with a history of violence, and, most perplexing of all, a police officer from the former East Berlin.
5. Children in the Morning (2010)
When Beau Delaney, the Halifax hotshot whose exploits are the subject of a new Hollywood film, is charged with the murder of his wife Peggy, it’s lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins who takes the case. But when Beau’s family dynamics and the appearance of a mysterious child alert Monty that his client is keeping secrets, others join in to help keep Beau from a life in prison. Monty’s pal, Father Brennan Burke, has a hand in the investigation, as does Monty’s estranged wife, Maura. Watching all this is Normie, Monty and Maura’s daughter, who has the gift of second sight. When she starts having visions that involve Beau, she can’t tell whether they reflect something he’s done in the past–or something he might do in the future. It then becomes clear that Normie and Monty must rely on each other to discover the truth about Peggy’s death.
6. Death at Christy Burke’s (2011)
When spray-painted graffiti appears on the wall of Christy Burke’s pub indicating that there’s a killer on the premises, his grandson, Father Brennan Burke, is asked to investigate the vandalism. Though not at all keen on probing into the lives of the bar’s clientele, he has little choice once a body is found on the property. Issuing orders from a cell in Mountjoy Prison, the pub’s current owner wants the problem solved without the police anywhere near his building. Assisted by his pal Monty Collins and fellow priest Michael O’Flaherty, Brennan begins to uncover dark secrets worth killing for in the lives of the pub regulars. In addition to the events surrounding the pub, Brennan’s murder investigation becomes overshadowed by ominous events in Belfast that may soon come home to roost in Dublin. Sinister figures are spotted in and around the pub, people are being followed in the street, and Brennan comes to possess explosive information that he cannot reveal to security forces. The situation compels him to take a hard look at Irish history and his family’s place in it, and he can’t shake the feeling that an act of violence in Northern Ireland is about to be avenged soon – and very close to home.
7. Blood on a Saint (2013)
In the seventh book of the deftly written Collins-Burke Mystery series, Father Brennan Burke’s patience is pushed to the limit when a young woman announces to the world that the Virgin Mary has appeared to her in the churchyard, and hordes of pilgrims, souvenir hawkers, and reporters converge on the scene. But, as unwelcome as these guests may be, they pale in comparison to yet another aggravation in Father Burke’s life, a controversial talk show host who clashes with Burke upon arriving in town. Events take a darker turn when a body is found at the apparition site, and the talk show host is picked up for the murder. There is enough aggravation to go around, as Monty Collins learns when he takes on the loud-mouthed TV man as a client. Monty and Brennan both have a stake in uncovering the truth about the murder, and they both learn disturbing things about the accused man and other suspects in the case. Neither man can talk to the other about what he has learned, however, due to solicitor – client confidentiality on one side, the seal of the confessional on the other.
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