Member Reviews
This story takes place in Belfast.. The police go to a cottage and see Iona standing outside. She says she killed them all. Inside the words WHO KILLED EDEN MULLIGAN are written on the wall. Outside dolls hang in the tree, mutilated dolls with mismatched limbs. The detectives are reminded of a cold case involving Eden Mulligan, but Iona's confession does not seem believable.
I thank Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Who took Eden Mulligan? Those words will go on to haunt the police as they try to solve a murder and a case of a missing person assumed to be connected. Belfast is the site of the murders where someone, Iona Gardner, confesses to killing four people while bloody and disheveled. Words were placed in graffiti style to alert the police to the connection but will they be able to put the two together? This book is very well written with enough suspense to keep you hooked as well as a fast paced story line that will make you want to keep reading. This author has found her niche and boy does she know how to write psychological thrillers. Well developed characters that make way for a great protagonist. Overall I give this one 5++ stars.
Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
I was attracted to this book by the title and the cover and I was definitely not disappointed. DI Danny Stowe and his old University friend forensic psychologist Rose Lainey come together to investigate the present day murders of 4 graduates in Northern Ireland. The crime scene suggests a link to the cold case of Eden Mulligan, a young mother who went missing in Belfast during the Troubles. I found this to be a fresh and original addition to the crime genre. Sharon Dempsey writes a gripping novel and for me gives hugely insightful look at what happened in Belfast communities during the years of the Troubles. I loved the characters of Stowe and Lainey and also the relationship between them. This was a novel that kept me gripped and guessing until the end and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC
This is a really good, well written, gripping thriller!
Set in Northern Ireland around 2 central characters, Detective Danny and his old university friend Rose, a criminal psychologist, this story is fast paced, edgy, and well researched.
Best of all, it’s unpredictable.
A great read!
I would have given this 6 or 7 out of five stars if possible. If this book isn’t in every crime fiction readers top 10 of 2021 I will be astounded.
Set in Belfast, a modern day murder opens the door to an investigation into a cold case “ Who Took Eden Mulligan” is scrawled on the wall in a room of a house in which 5 friends were attacked, one escaped to the local police station and confessed to being responsible before collapsing.
The phrase on the wall refers to a woman that went missing during the Northern Ireland Troubles and became one of the people known as “The Disappeared” and that had me reach for google to do some research.
The two main characters Chief Inspector Danny Stowe and Dr Rose Lainey were best friends at University in England but haven’t seen each other since.
Lainey s back in Ireland visiting her estranged family after the death of her overbearing mother. She has questions about the activities of her mother during the troubles, and when she is asked to help Stowe she tentatively accepts, mainly because her family lived close to Mulligan at the time she went missing.
This is a stunning start to a new series and I can’t wait for the next instalment
A horrible murder of five young people, a false confession, a detective with his career on the line and his college friend with demons of her own, make for and exciting murder/mystery with plenty of twists and turns.
The author does a wonderful of job in bringing the past into the present and merging them into one story that will keep you guessing.
Thank you to Avon UK and Netgalley for and advanced copy. Will definitely be looking for more works from this author.
Who took Eden Mulligan by Sharon Dempsey is a story about two police cases past and present?
Iona Garner runs into a PSNI station covered in blood claiming to have killed 5 people in a run-down cottage in the outskirts of Belfast. When the visit the location, there is graffiti on the wall which reads Who Killed Eden Mulligan? Also, five wooden dolls hanging from a tree.
Forensic Psychologist Rose Lainey has come back to Belfast after 18 years to attend her mother’s funeral and re connect to her siblings, after all these years. When she is contacted by DI Danny Stowes who is leading the investigation of the deaths and an old university friend to help him with the case and find out who did kill Eden Mulligan. It takes Rose back to the days of the IRA and her own childhood as her own mother. As there were rumours that her mother may have been involved.
I thank Avon for a copy of this slow burning, gripping thriller which I really enjoyed, but it was different to what I was expecting. I like the characters of Rose and Danny quite different people, but they made a good team to find the killer and what happened to Eden. It was also a great insight to what happened in the troubles in Belfast in the 80’s between the IRA and the innocent people that got caught in it and what they had to do to survive and the repercussions after. 4 stars from me
A stunning book, two cases in one but over different generations and cleverly and completely intertwined. The backdrop for the cold case is set in a fascinating and sensitive period of history which gives the book gritty realism and a real humbling appreciation of what people actually lived through. There are also strong themes of family and community bonds and loyalties. A really enjoyable read and a book I quite honestly couldn’t put down.
A good read involving the present and past in Belfast. The investigation involves events from the troubled past of Northern Ireland . When the present and past collide an interesting mystery develops.
Thank you NetGalley and AVON/Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. for a copy of "Who Took Eden Mulligan?" in exchange for an honest review.
The story starts with Iona Gardener running into an PSNI station claiming to be at fault and having killed people.
Detective Inspector Danny Stowe is assigned to the Historical Enquiries Unit as punishment for a case having gone wrong. His old friend Dr. Roisin (Rose) Lainey is visiting Belfast from London where she works as a forensic psychologist for the prison service. She doesn't tell Danny that she's in Belfast for the funeral of her mother whom she's been estranged from since she was 18. When Danny is assigned to look into an active case he gets Assistant Chief Constable Ian McCausland to put Rose on the payroll to help him out.
At Lower Dunlore Cottage they find 3 dead and 1 badly injured. Scrawled over the fireplace in blackened chalk is "Who Took Eden Mulligan?" Now they have to prove that the past and the present are connected.
Eden Mulligan went missing in July 1986, possibly between the 17th and the 22nd. She left behind 5 children but the police didn't want to investigate a missing mother, they thought she'd return when she was ready. Her body was never recovered, so they were told she might have run off with another man, since her husband was gone for months at a time looking for work in England.
Danny and Rose think there is a link between the 5 children Eden Mulligan left behind and the 5 young people attacked at the cottage.
The story was engaging and well written, making you want to keep turning the pages to see what happens next. Ms. Dempsey brought to life the streets of Belfast. The ending was shocking and a thrilling end to the book.
The storyline involves two events, one in the present and the other a cold case. The initial third of the story is very slow and no investigation is done at all. The motive of the present case felt convoluted and needs suspension of belief. The book has a promising story that is not given a proper treatment. Disappointed.
I really liked this book. There's a bloody murder inside an old house, a young girl walks into the police station covered in blood and tells them it's her fault everyone is dead!
When the police go to the house they find a horror scene, and someone has left a message.... Who took Eden Mulligan?
Rose is a great character and I enjoyed the relationship between her and Danny, and the story had plenty of twists to keep me guessing. I'd highly recommend this book.
Set in Belfast, this thriller boasts an intriguing crime, with a suspect who has confessed and a mysterious link to a decades-old unsolved disappearance.
Who Took Eden Mulligan? is a dark and gritty read. The case combines two crimes into one, with DI Stowe and Rose Lainey, a forensic psychologist, tasked with solving the crimes, finding the answers, and neatly tying up both cases. The pair certainly have a difficult job, made all the harder by the political backdrop of The Troubles during the time of Eden Mulligan's mysterious vanishing act.
This book has all the right elements for a gripping thriller, but sadly, they did not seem to gel together very well. The cases seemed disjointed and the motives were unclear. Additionally, the pace was slow to pick up, with nothing much happening for large portions of the book. This is a shame as the cases were intriguing - particularly with the link between the two - however, the execution lets this story down.
That being said, the two main characters, Rose and Danny, are interesting and it would be good to read more about them. Both have their personal demons, yet are highly skilled professionals and also great friends. They were definitely the highlight of the book for me!
Who Took Eden Mulligan? is a dark and disturbing crime thriller with an unexpected twist at the end.
A chilling novel which although fiction gives an insight into the reality of living through the "Troubles" a euphemism for the bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
A smart, masterfully written, slow-building mystery in which past and present collide. Highly recommend.
A heinous crime in contemporary Belfast is made more disturbing by its seeming ties to a cold case: the disappearance of Eden Mulligan in 1986 during The Troubles -- the term given for a period of conflict in Northern Ireland between the British and Irish Catholics who wanted an independent Ireland that lasted from the late 1960s until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. While at first the connection between the two cases alludes the assigned detectives, it soon becomes clear that the shadow cast by the Troubles has far from receded, leaving an indelible mark on those who survived that time whether as adults or children. If the detectives are to solve this case, they must unearth old ghosts that many would prefer remain buried, reopen political wounds, and even take a hard look at their own connections to that time.
Rose is going home for her mother's funeral. She has not seen her siblings or mother in many years.
DI Danny an old friend of Rose's asks her to help on a very disturbing case. Four murdered young people. The fifth escaped death but in her mind she believes she killed her roommates.
Rose and Danny will work the case together. Actually two cases since the name of a victim in an unsolved case is scrawled across the wall at the crime scene of the four that were killed.
A dark psychological thriller. So many twists, that it keeps you guessing all the way to the end.
Great read!
Great twists in this story, keeps you absolutely gripped from Page 1 and no disappointment in the ending!
I loved the merging of genres in this book - true crime and mystery thriller! Forensic psychologist Rose Lainey heads home to Belfast to attend her mother’s funeral for the sake of her siblings. Rose had a tough relationship with her mother leaving home at eighteen for London. While in Belfast, she visits her college friend, DI Danny Stowe. Danny invites Rose to join his case involving three murders and an old missing persons case that appears to be connected. Honestly I was hooked from the beginning then it slowed down in the middle, but recovered quickly at the end with what I did not expect! Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.
Who took eden mulligan ? these words are written at the site of a brutal murder .As the police hunt for the killer they also look in to the cold case of missing mom of 5 eden mulligan .Keeps you involved right up to the end .
Excellent twists and turns, dark and chilling... a fab debut, this is an author to watch!
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