The Golden Horseshoes Murders: A Nora Duffy Mystery

Nora Duffy, a pediatric brain surgeon, and her handsome husband, Tommy Barry, an international lawyer, and their family and friends are once again surrounded by mayhem and murder at her castle on the southwestern coast of Ireland and in her hometown of Chicago. The assaults continue during a vacation to her family's vineyard in California and at their new condo in New York City.Nora and her two Irish dogs discover the battered corpse of a young woman on the Coral Beach in Sneem, Ireland. This is followed by another killing of a young woman, and then one of the loved tenant farmers on the Duffy Estate is brutally murdered. Their little corner of the world is usually quiet, and Garda Chief Brennan is mystified as to the motive and identity of the killer.The plans to build a research facility to develop cures for rare diseases seem to be going well, but when they begin construction, a surprising discovery is made. They also find a hidden room in the castle containing a huge cache of valuable antiques, but Nora worries that this will attract even more unwanted attention.The media had dubbed Nora “The Mighty Rich Midget” last year after seeing how small and short she was when she inherited an enormous fortune from her uncle. She had been able to help many people with this money, but when her family is threatened, she wonders if it was really a good thing.The Duffy Hall Castle ghosts Ralph and Hitch, the stooges of ghostdom, think of the castle as home, but they often cause trouble. They can usually be found in the cellar of the pub in town with its stores of Guinness and Jameson. The ghosts add their madcap efforts to do what they can to protect Nora.Nora finds a brilliant financial advisor in New York and invites Margaret to join the board of Duffy Medical. The older Irish board members are skeptical about having a woman in their midst, and Nora wonders if they will accept Margaret as the expert she is.Nora steers her friends Adam and Cathy O'Mara to Saint Bridget's Orphanage when they seek to adopt, but the ten-year-old girl they've chosen has a history of mental and physical pain. They encounter many obstacles on their quest to become a healthy family.Nora and Tommy discover that she is pregnant, and they are thrilled with this news and begin to make plans for the future.At the end of the year, Nora received an e-mail from a former medical school classmate who had moved back to Wuhan, China. Michael tells her that he is dying from a new coronavirus that is loose in his city, and he fears that it could get out into the world. Her old friend ended his note with “God help us all,” and Nora fervently agreed with that plea!

by Babs L. Murphy

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