Marian Stanley--Secrets

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am an instant fan of anyone who quotes the wonderful Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Add in Boston AND Ireland and you really have a treat. Most crime novels are driven by secrets of one sort or another, and I'd hazard a guess that the Irish have more than their fair share. I've become fascinated in the last few years with the Troubles, so am always keen to read anything that sheds light on turbulent Irish history. Here's author Marian Stanley to tell us how this ties into her latest Rosaria O'Reilly mystery. This is so intriguing!

SECRETS
Marian Stanley

“You’re only as sick as your secrets.”       

Alcoholics Anonymous

Psychologists tell us that keeping a secret can hold us in a developmental deep freeze. Life can be frozen at the point in which we learn of or even see something that can’t be shared – ever.

The emotional strain and ethics of keeping long-held secrets drive much of the narrative in the second Rosaria O’Reilly mystery BURIED TROUBLES. Set in Boston and the stunning landscape of western Ireland, the story follows a search for answers after the body of young Irish journalism student is found floating in Boston Harbor.

In BURIED TROUBLES, a man does penance his entire life in service of the secret he is keeping – not able to live authentically because he is always conscious of what he witnessed and can never talk about. This particular secret is special and unique to his home country, one wrapped in old grievances and crimes. Never far from his mind, it exerts a gravitational pull that he can’t escape.

Add a layer of Irish history with all its turmoil, complications and oppression and you have the famous Irish adage, which followed the immigrant community to Boston’s Charlestown, Southie and elsewhere. “Whatever you say, say nothin’.”  Don’t be a snitch. Don’t be a tout. Don’t tell. A code of honor which would be familiar in any inner city neighborhood today.

“You know them by their eyes, and hold your tongue”, said the beloved Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Or, as the songwriter Colum Sands from County Down, put it – “Whatever you say, say nothin’ when you talk about you know what . . . For they’ll take you off to you know where for you wouldn’t know how long.” And who is the they? It could be the oppressor or it could be your own ones.

There is a great freedom in the releasing of secrets, but releasing a secret is disruptive. There is always a price to be paid and life is never the same, both for those involved and for those who might go digging for answers. There are repercussions and sometimes great danger, as there is for Rosaria O’Reilly in this story. Danger from those who won’t let go of the past and its secrets, danger of a different sort in an old flame from her University of Galway days who threatens Rosaria’s relationship with Boston Police Detective Solly Belkin, and even an unexpected danger to her own family history.

In this book, families move through life keeping old secrets from each other. Families have always done this. The secrets differ from family to family and don’t necessarily involve a crime, as we have in BURIED TROUBLES. Perhaps it’s an old affair, perhaps it’s sexual orientation, or maybe it’s an older sister who is really the mother of the youngest child. Perhaps something as sweet as when our longtime and well-loved Irish babysitter was somehow able to put an altered birth date on her citizenship papers so that she was eternally younger than her husband – at least in the US.

What’s your viewpoint on or experience with secrets and their impact on lives? I’m happy to send a copy of Buried Troubles to a selected commentator.

Marian McMahon Stanley is the author of two Rosaria O’Reilly mysteries from Barking Rain Press - The Immaculate (May 2016) and Buried Troubles (June 2018) as well as a recent short story “Career Transitions” in the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine.  Marian enjoyed a long international corporate career and, most recently, a senior position at a large urban university. She writes in a small town outside Boston.

www.marianmcmahonstanley.com

DEBS: And here's more about BURIED TROUBLES--

Rosaria O’Reilly finds herself in grave danger from those who won’t let go of the past in this thrilling sequel to The Immaculate.

Still recovering from injuries sustained during her last effort in solving a murder, Rosaria is dragged into a new case with ties to the Irish community on both sides of the Atlantic. The victim is an Irish journalism student working on a research paper in Boston. His aunt, a friend of Rosaria’s, reaches out to her for help in solving the case.

This does not go over well with Rosaria’s significant other, Boston Police Detective Solly Belkin, who wants Rosaria to leave the case in his capable hands. Determined to help her friend and assert her independence to Solly, Rosaria travels to Ireland for the funeral and continues her investigation there. Soon, she is caught up in a dark web of ancient grievances, old crimes, and secrets that powerful people are determined to keep hidden forever.

Can Rosaria unearth these buried troubles and solve the murder before the killer buries her instead?

DEBS: Be sure to comment for your chance to win a copy of BURIED TROUBLES!

And I want to know more from Marian about her own connection with Ireland.