Requiems for the Departed

  Gerard Brennan, he of the excellent Irish-themed crime fiction blog Crime Scene N.I., has joined with Mike Stone in editing an anthology of short stories by some of the top Irish authors writing today. All of the 17 stories in Requiems for the Departed are inspired by Irish mythology (not in a supernatural way, for the most part), but you don't have to be an expert on the subject to enjoy the stories—and the authors helpfully summarize each myth for you at the beginning of their tale to bring you up to speed. They're divided into three semi-geographical headings, Ulster, Myth, and Fianna.

Stuart Nevill's "Queen of the Hill" starts things off with a bang of noir (literally), based on the legend of Macha, goddess of ancient Ireland and one of the original femme fatales. Tony Black's "Hound of Culann" and Arlene Hunt's "Sliabh Ban" are stories with animal themes, Hunt's focusing on a woman scorned in love and horse-racing. Two authors have series characters from their novels making appearances—Sam Millar's hard-boiled P.I. Karl Kane who chases down the elusive "Red Hand of Ulster" serial killer (a story to be expanded into a Millar novel in 2011) and Brian McGilloway's Inspector Benedict Devlin, in a story drawing from the myth of the poet Finnegas and the Salmon of Knowledge as Devlin tracks a murderous fish poacher.

As Brennan says, "The children of Conchobar are back to their old mischievous ways. Ancient Celtic royalty, druids and banshees are set loose in the new Irish underbelly with murder and mayhem on their minds." Settle in for a feast of crime fiction, with a tasting of Celtic mythology on the side, in Requiems for the Departed (due out June 1st) and enjoy the offerings from Ken Bruen, Maxim Jakubowski, Adrian McKinty, John Grant, Garry Kilworth, T.A. Moore and others.