Tiernan's Wake

Tiernan's Wake

Michael Tiernan, a burned-out Boston lawyer, is contacted by the mysterious Irish historian Aedan Burns. He believes Michael’s family history files contain a clue that will lead them to the only known portrait and missing treasure of the 16th-century Irish pirate Grace O’Malley. Aedan offers Michael and his artist wife Sara a partnership. Michael and Sara apply their different skills and solve the puzzle, or do they? In the process, they discover themselves, and that Grace O’Malley was more than just a pirate. And then they discover who Aedan is and what he was really up to . . . "An amazing historical mystery, guaranteed to keep you compulsively turning the page until the very end. Highly recommended!" Susan Keefe, The Columbia Review of Books & Film "An intelligent yet lighthearted mystery, with the added appeal of academia. In the same vein as Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, the reader goes on a historical adventure while remaining grounded in the present through history lessons and captivating tidbits of information on theology, symbology, art and more." Rebecca Skane, The Portsmouth Review " Well written and highly imaginative, Tiernan's Wake offers a wonderful historical mystery set against the growth and self-realization of a group of people thrown together by more than chance, people who complement one another and develop deep and rewarding relationships. Art, cryptology, the European history of the Elizabethan and Nazi eras, and family secrets all come together enjoyably in this fascinating book." Melinda Hills, Readers' Favorite "A rare book for today's times. Combining wit and charm with affable prose and tart dialogue, it adds its own branch to the family tree of good stories well told." Joe Kilgore, Pacific Book Review (Starred Review) "A rewarding storyline, and a compelling cast of entertaining characters . . A satisfying and entertaining novel . . . " Mindy Hood, SPR Reviews Grace O'Malley was a real 16th-century pirate, but much more. She was an educated noblewoman of the Irish Clan system, a competent CEO, a skilled political operative, an Irish patriot and overall a major player. She may have been a spy. And she certainly is a symbol of the Irish thirst for independence, and the strong Irish woman in a male-dominated society.   With not enough help, Grace held off the completion of England's Irish Conquest for years, and appears to have stared down England's formidable Queen Elizabeth I when they finally met in 1593. It's a shame that Grace's story is not more widely known outside Ireland. There is little known about her, even in Ireland. No identified portraits of her have been located. But there are tales of the red-haired pirate temptress, able to kill a man with her looks as easily as with her sword, and rumors of a vast buried treasure. That's where this novel begins.   Be warned, though, this isn't primarily a pirate story. I hope it's an entertaining historical mystery, with some unexpected twists and turns. And I hope also it will make readers laugh, because nothing Irish or Irish-American can take itself too seriously. But on another level, it's a story of damaged and scared adults confronting their mortality and looking for the "missing portraits" of themselves. And it's a story of how our past speaks to us and shows us the way. Sometimes important messages are best delivered by ancestral spirits. Real spirits, not genetic memory. The Irish know that the spirits of our ancestors live in us, whether we believe in them or not. We just have to learn how to listen to them. It can take a lifetime. "Our history is their history, and theirs is ours." Rosemarie Geraghty Ionad Deirbhile Heritage Center Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland Richard T. Rook is a lawyer and consulting genealogist who lives near Boston, Massachusetts with his wife Dyan, an artist and documented direct descendant of a fourteenth-century female pirate. He began writing in 2015 and his published short stories have won several awards in national and international competitions. Tiernan's Wake has been selected as a finalist for the Chaucer Award (historical fiction) in the 2017 Chanticleer International Book Awards, winners to be announced in April 2018. It was also selected as one of the "Top Five Books for February 2018" by Pacific Book Review.