Galway Homicide: Hays & Lyons

A woman is found dead in a ditch. As the list of suspects grows, a town's dirty secrets are revealed. It's a cold winter evening and rain is sweeping in from the Atlantic when a young woman, having braved the weather to visit her sick mother in a remote part of Ireland, comes across an obstacle in the road. She clears the highway of stones from a damaged bridge only to see the body of a woman in a ditch. With no phone reception, she travels to the nearest police station to report what she has found. The local Garda waste no time in attending the scene of the crime. The woman is clearly dead, but it needs proper forensics to establish if foul play was the cause. In the meantime, is it not possible that the woman driver was in fact the culprit? She is clearly not telling the whole truth. A game of cat and mouse ensues when the inquiry is upgraded to a murder investigation. The trouble is, when the victim is recognised as a sex worker, there is no shortage of possible suspects. And few of them, if any, are willing to tell the truth to the police. It will take all of Galway detectives Hays and Lyons' experience to cut through the web of lies and identify the killer in their midst.

Are detectives right to think that the brutal murder of a pensioner is more than just a burglary gone wrong? A health-worker visiting clients in a remote area on the West Coast of Ireland has a nasty surprise when she finds a reclusive old man dead in his armchair in his tumbledown cottage. When the local Garda is called, it soon becomes obvious that this is no death from natural causes. The man has been tortured and his house ransacked. Galway detectives and pathology are called in to establish the cause of death and a possible motive. Nothing has been taken from the house, and the Scene of Crime Officers discover little to excite forensics. So, why did the man meet such a violent and miserable death? This is the second case for detectives Mick Hays and Maureen Lyons. The investigation will draw the team into a darker side of Ireland: its criminal underworld, the gangs who'll do anything for a price, and desperate men whose shady dealings are catching up with them. Set mostly in the beautiful surroundings of the west of Ireland's rural landscape, but also in Cork and Limerick, readers who like atmospheric crime fiction will love this authentic and gripping murder mystery. MURDER AT THE OLD COTTAGE is the second audiobook by David Pearson to feature these detectives.

When Cathy Broomfield's youngest daughter Kirsty disappeared, Cathy hoped she had gone to stay with friends, to escape her brutal and bullying husband. But as the days passed with no word from Kirsty, a loving daughter who spoke to her mum every day, Cathy became increasingly anxious… until the day the police arrived at her door to tell her they had found a body. Her worst fears had been realized. Through a Mother's Tears is the poignant and heartbreaking story of how Cathy lost not only Kirsty, her youngest daughter, but Kirsty's big sister Hayley, who died of heartbreak when the agony of her baby sister's loss became too much to bear. This harrowing audiobook will appeal to listeners of The Hospital, and Cathy Glass.

Set in the beautiful surroundings of the west coast of Ireland, MURDER AT THE PONY SHOW is a cozy police procedural the whole family can enjoy. The discovery of a man's body puts a damper on the annual Connemara Pony Show. DI Maureen Lyons investigates a difficult case of foul play. The show is under way, but the gaiety is brought to an abrupt halt with the discovery of a dead man in a horsebox. Whilst the teenaged owner of the horse runs off in fright, detectives are quickly dispatched to investigate what is soon established as murder. Given the suspicious activity of the organizers, and the peculiar occupation of the victim, the Irish police have a conundrum on their hands. Several motives begin to emerge, but when they are compounded by a kidnapping and evidence of dodgy dealings, it is far from an open and shut case.

A body found below a cliff is not what it seems, and a deadly heist is underway in this enjoyable Irish murder mystery. Whilst junior detectives rush to the scene of a potential murder near Roundstone, Connemara, an informant lets on to DCI Mick Hays that a big robbery is about to take place. With a large part of Galway's police force mobilized to catch the felons in the act, resources are stretched. Will the robbers walk into the trap? Is the information reliable? Are they sufficiently prepared? Unresolved, the murder and the heist stand to leave egg on the face of the west coast of Ireland's finest. And a group of dangerous criminals are set to make off scot-free with the Christmas pay. It will take serious detective work to convince the chief superintendent that Hays and his team are up to the task in hand.

A local businessman's plane crashes into bogland killing all three occupants… Galway's detectives investigate. It's not long before experts establish that the small aircraft's engine had been tampered with. From dealing with a tragic accident, senior DI Maureen Lyons is suddenly launching a murder inquiry. The initial police investigation centers on the pilot, the local property development tycoon, Gerald Fortune. The other occupants are seen as unfortunate bystanders. It turns out that Fortune did not always play fair, and many individuals were left out of pocket by his business dealings. But was that enough to kill? Who would go to such lengths to see off the plane's occupants? Who was the real target? And why? This could be the hardest investigation yet for Maureen Lyons and her team. And she'll have to light a fire under the sleepy west coast Garda to catch the killer.

A woman is found dead in a local businessman's holiday let. Detectives uncover some shady dealings. But did he kill her? The charm of a West of Ireland holiday home is somewhat tarnished when a woman's body is found in the property. There are few clues as to her identity. However, in her hand is found a small solid-gold ingot. Galway-based DI Maureen Lyons is drawn out to the sticks to take on the case. Suspicion naturally falls on the property's owner who runs a large discount store, lives beyond his means, and has an over-zealous interest in the ladies. But the team find it difficult to establish a motive and it is only when the investigation follows the money that a picture begins to emerge. This is one of corruption that spreads across Europe, from Ireland, through Holland, all the way to Lithuania and beyond.

It is with a certain trepidation that the local garda approach a car stuck out on Ballyconneely Beach gradually becoming swamped by the rising tide. And the police's worst fears are confirmed when they find it contains the body of a young woman. When the post-mortem indicates the death was the result of foul play, the girl's family is interviewed and her room searched. After the discovery of a USB stick that appears to be evidence of corruption within the Council's planning department, the investigation begins to center on an architectural firm. Whether or not the killer is feeling the heat, another girl is abducted. The race is now on to track down the felon. But he “actually” seems to want the police to find him, as he taunts DI Maureen Lyons with information.

Irish detectives Maureen Lyons and Mick Hays face one of their hardest cases yet... When a successful bookmaker is robbed and killed during the annual Galway Races, the motive seems clear. But when the money turns up untouched, more questions are raised than answered. Top Brass want the case wrapped up. The pressure is on DI Maureen Lyons to find the killer. However, the police didn't count on having to deal with a troublemaker within their own ranks. Rigorous detective work will be needed to find the culprit. But with more than a few suspects, the police are stretched to their limit. It may well require the luck of the Irish — and some underhand shenanigans — to crack the case.

Irish detectives struggle to make sense of the evidence in this mystery that keeps you guessing. A relaxing sailing trip on his day off becomes anything but for DSI Mick Hays when a body is found at sea. The coastguard pluck the corpse from the ocean with ease, but establishing the dead man's identity won't be straightforward. And when pathology indicates he was murdered, Hays' partner DI Maureen Lyons is put in charge of the investigation. Good forensics and a nose for trouble lead Lyons to a small hamlet in an isolated part of the coast. But the locals, who are running a smooth bootleg liquor operation, are none too forthcoming with information. Suspicions are raised when a known associate of the victim goes to ground. But who is he running from? The police or the killer themselves? Lyons will have to work quickly and solve the puzzle before another body is found. MURDER IN A SAFE HAVEN is the tenth standalone book in a series of thirteen featuring DSI Mick Hays and DI Maureen Lyons, which is set on the west coast of Ireland.

Too late to find a missing man, are Irish detectives in time to catch his killer? It is only a passing comment in the post office in a remote part of Western Ireland that alerts police to the disappearance of Davin Faherty. But foul play is established when his unceremoniously wrapped corpse turns up in a bog. His brother falls under suspicion, but why kill over a near-useless piece of grazing land? DI Maureen Lyons leads the investigation but relies on trusty Mulholland, the old-school local policeman stationed in Clifden, for the legwork. She has other problems: an illegal cannabis farm and a prospector from a US minerals company who won't take no for an answer. Ultimately, however, DI Lyons will need to get her hands dirty before the killer vanishes into the coastal mist. MURDER IN AN IRISH BOG is the eleventh title in the best-selling police mystery series set in Galway on the west coast of Ireland by David Pearson.