First Look at The Wild Irish Sea

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy

Today is June 18th, which means in 18 more days, my third book The Wild Irish Sea is scheduled to hit bookshelves. Less than three weeks?!?! The reality hasn't quite sunk in yet.

It doesn't feel like that long ago when my editor asked me for "another Irish book," and I was happy to oblige. I had recently watched the beautiful movie The Secret of Roan Inish which was filmed on location on the rugged northern coast of Ireland and I decided I would set my new story there also.

So now I had a setting, the rugged coast of Donegal. But what kind of people would be there? And wouldn't it be more interesting if my main characters were strangers instead of natives? Then all the things they saw and did would be new and fresh. Like those high-prowed row boats I'd read about and seen a few times -- curraghs. How would an American like me handle one of those? An image of a man in a big coat rowing in a rain storm popped into my mind. I knew he wasn't the hero, but who was he?

Ten years ago, my niece gave birth to fraternal twin boys, the first (and so far only) twins in our immediate family. Watching my grandnephews interact with each other (even as infants) sparked my interest in twins and their relationships. After reading a lot about twins, I thought it would be fun to write about them. Oh good, now I knew the man in the boat was the heroine's twin brother, and their names were Amber and Parker O'Neill.

But these two weren't just twins, they were twins with a special secret... all their lives, they had been able to communicate telepathically with each other! Amber and Parker can speak to each other mentally, send each other images, and feel what the other is feeling.

So what if one of them witnesses a murder and now the killers are after him? Because that man in the boat in the rainstorm? He's rowing like crazy, and I'm pretty sure that was a gun shot behind him! YIKES!!! And what are those dark shapes swimming around his boat?!?!

When Amber receives her brother's mental distress call, she rushes to the rocky shores of Donegal to rescue him. But first, she has to find him, and to do that, she'll need help...
Kevin Hennessey held out his hand toward the smoldering turf fire and listened to the wind rattling through the eaves and down the chimney. Rain pinged on the tin roof as the third squall in a week, and by far the strongest, buffeted the lone cottage.

But what did he expect during summer in Donegal, especially in these parts? His old man had lived here nearly ten years when he’d died this spring, and the entire time, he groused to anyone who visited that Malin Head possessed only three kinds of weather--barely tolerable, foul, and more foul
.
A rapping noise interrupted Kevin’s reverie. Had one of the shutters on the front window blown loose? Jaysus but he hoped not. He most decidedly did not want to go outside in the dark and the rain to fix the bloody thing.

The noise came again, louder and unmistakable, and thoroughly improbable. Someone was pounding on the front door. Kevin turned in slack-jawed surprise at the realization.

The house stood at the end of a perpetually muddy lane, an isolated sentinel on the ragged bluff, more than three kilometers from its nearest neighbor. No one ventured out here without an express invitation. ‘Twas the way Declan Hennessey had liked it, and Kevin preferred it the same.

What feckin neddy would be out in a storm like this, then?

He snatched the battery-powered lamp off the end table and strode to the front door to find out. Gripping the light in his left hand, he threw the bolt and eased open the heavy wooden door.

A dripping figure in a yellow rain slicker stumbled forward. Nearly dropping the lamp, he stuck out an arm and the woman steadied herself. He knew the stranger was a woman the moment her slender fingers gripped him, a Yank judging from her muddy jeans and trainers.

She jerked away from him as if burned, her dark eyes enormous in her pale face, wet hair plastered against her head.

“Are you a policeman?” she asked, her accent confirming his assumption that she was indeed American. “They told me at the pub that a policeman lived at the end of this road.”

...“My father was constable of our village in County Derry,” Kevin answered gruffly. “But he’s been dead these past three months.”

“I’m sorry, but are you Mr. Hennessey’s son? They told me you were a policeman too.” The woman’s voice crackled with tension, and deep shadows purpled the skin beneath her eyes. “I need your help. My brother’s in trouble and I have to find him!”

Will Kevin help Amber find her missing brother Parker? And what other adventures await them? I'm afraid you'll have to wait 18 more days to find out.

Do you know what the "secret" is in The Secret of Roan Inish? Have you read other books with twins? Please let your Aunty know if you liked them or not. And while we are on the subject of books, what is lurking near the top of your TBR pile?