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- A Distant Grave by Sarah Stewart Taylor, Minotaur Books, 432 pages. $27.99.
There's a special place in my heart for any book that breaks a reading slump. I had been pushing books aside in favor of scrolling through the Twittersphere and falling more and more behind on my Goodreads challenge. But when I picked up Sarah Stewart Taylor's A Distant Grave, the second novel in her Maggie D'arcy series, what happened next was a cliché: I found myself feverishly turning pages late into the night, nearly frantic to know what would happen to Maggie, the novel's narrator, as she unwinds a tightly spooled murder mystery with potentially deadly stakes.
A Distant Grave follows The Mountains Wild, the first Maggie D'arcy mystery, and it feels very much like a sequel. Readers who haven't read the first novel should start there. They'll receive a full explanation of Maggie's history and motivations as she travels to Ireland, first in 1993 and then again in 2016, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her cousin, Erin.
Without revealing too many spoilers, I can say that the second book finds Maggie, a Long Island-based police detective, dealing with personal and professional fallout from the events of The Mountains Wild. Grief, concern for her teenage daughter and a tentative new romance tug at Maggie as she works to solve another homicide. This time, it's an Irish national found dead on a Long Island beach.
Stewart Taylor, who grew up on Long Island and lived and studied in Ireland before winding up on a farm in Vermont, establishes a strong sense of place in her writing. Maggie travels again to Ireland in A Distant Grave, and the author's depictions of the Irish landscape capture the awe of an outsider who has fallen for a new country. Stewart Taylor writes: "The fields are so bright I stop for a minute, overcome with the life of them, the figures of reddish-brown cows in the plot closest to us." Her prose is clear and rhythmic, valuing reflection and momentum in equal measure.
The story revolves around the strong, well-defined character of Maggie. Tough but not hardened, she's often overwhelmed by the task of balancing her career ambitions, love life and single parenthood. At times, she neglects her personal life to chase another lead in the murder case, or she feels frustrated by her daughter's moodiness, then guilty later.
Maggie is also a woman in the male-dominated world of policing, and Stewart Taylor reveals the character's deliberations as she works to command the respect and authority she deserves. The relationship between Maggie and her work partner, Dave, is a highlight of the story, punctuated by good-natured ribbing and genuine affection.
- Courtesy Of Sharona Jacobs
- Sarah Stewart Taylor
While at work on the series, Stewart Taylor spent time with real Long Island cops and members of the Gardaí, the Irish national police force. She incorporates current political and public tensions around modern policing into the novel, as well as many people's lack of trust in law enforcement.
Set in 2017, A Distant Grave deals with gang violence. Maggie notes that, since the election of Donald Trump (though she never says his name), violence with roots in Central American cartel battles has become a convenient scapegoat for many crimes. Some of Maggie's colleagues are convinced that gang members are behind the Irishman's murder.
The novel explores the idea that good cops aren't always rewarded for doing the right thing. Petty, self-interested politicians drive twists in the story.
All these layers of personal and social conflict, presented in the first few chapters of the book, seem at first as though they might make the story difficult to follow. But Stewart Taylor, like her main character, is an experienced multitasker and guides the reader with skill. As Maggie works to solve the whodunit and keep another murder from happening, Stewart Taylor draws a complicated plot and a large cast of characters into a satisfying ending.
Every caper has its consequences, and the end of this one finds Maggie again at a major crossroads, with enough questions to set the stage for her next adventure. The third book in the series is due out in June 2022, leaving readers plenty of time to catch up — and to use Stewart Taylor's books to pull themselves out of any tenacious reading slumps.
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November 03, 2021 at 09:01PM
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Book Review: 'A Distant Grave,' Sarah Stewart Taylor - Seven Days
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