The Good People by Hannah Kent

From Pueblo Chieftain:

Foreboding builds from the get-go of "The Good People," Hannah Kent's haunting historical novel about a rural Irish community gripped by sudden death and suspicion.

It's 1825, and the people in the hills near Killarney strike an uneasy balance between the sacred and the superstitious: rosary beads in one pocket and cold embers to ward off evil spirits in the other. When Martin Leahy drops dead at the crossroads where suicides are buried, neighbors are set on edge. The fact that his daughter died not long before and left a strange grandchild behind fans the fear of otherworldly interference.

Although "The Good People" is fiction, it faithfully represents the hold of ancient Celtic myths on generations of Irish. It also lays bare some hard truths about human nature and leaves you thinking about belief, suspicion and what happens to a community when fear takes hold.

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