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Type of bind: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780739302538
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN number: 0739302531
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Quantity: 5
Printing Date: 2003-05
Publishing house: Random House Audio
Release Date: May 27, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1835835
Studio: Random House Audio
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When farmers cutting turf in an Irish peat bog make a grisly discovery - the perfectly intact body of a young woman with long blue hair - archaeologist Cormac O'Callaghan and pathologist Nora Gavin are thrown together by their shared scientific interest in human remains. Because of the preservative effect of the bog, it is difficult to tell whether the body has lain there for two decades, two centuries, or two millennia. As they dig into the mystery of the red-haired girl, they are drawn into the two-year-old disappearance of a landowner's wife and young son. The story delves through the many layers of Ireland's turbulent past, tracing the still-visible footprints of fortified tower houses and ancient burial mounds, ever mindful of the eternal, subliminal connections between past and present.
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Rated by buyers 
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We've probably all heard stories about mummified bodies and historical artifacts turning up in peat bogs all over Europe, as the bogs are cut for turf or drained for new construction. This story, set in modern-day Ireland, has young archaeology professor Cormac Maguire and American anatomist Nora Gavin looking into the mystery surrounding the grim find of a young woman's head in an Irish countryside peat bog, with its mane of blue hair still attached and an old, engraved ring stuffed deep into her mouth. The police get involved due to the fairly recent disappearance of a local woman, Mina Osborne, and her infant son. Mina's husband, Hugh, considered by the locals to be an upstart interloper whose English family unlawfully seized lands in Ireland during the Cromwellian years, is the primary suspect, but so far no one has been able to bring a case against him because no bodies have ever turned up. Could this unidentified woman be Mina Osborne, or is it the remains of someone much, much older? Why is only her head present, and where is the rest of her body? Was she executed? Murdered?
We get a wonderful infusion of old Irish castle lore when Cormac and are invited to stay in the Osborne's family estate, a decaying old castle and manor house stuffed with as many secrets as it is neglected old furniture. A full cast of characters are fleshed out beautifully here, as well, from Hugh Osborne's stiff, cold sister-in-law and her disturbed teenage son, to Devaney, the detective who is no longer supposed to be pursuing this case but can't seem to help himself, to Cormac and Nora themselves, who feel a strong connection to one another but are hindered by the significant barriers both have put up in their lives. Nora has a particular interest in the bog woman and the possibility that she is the missing Mina Osborne, because she herself is still mourning the brutal slaying of her own sister at the hands of a husband who, like Hugh Osborne, was never convicted. Nora wants to share Cormac's belief in Hugh's innocence, but her own experience with her sister's murder colors her thinking. It doesn't help matters that once Cormac and Nora move temporarily into the manor, a series of increasingly dangerous incidences involving vandalism, dead animals, and broken glass makes it clear that someone out there wants to put an abrupt end to any more digging, both literal and figurative.
I was particularly enchanted by the rich folklore and evocative Irish setting, complete with traditional Irish music, old Gaelic legends, names and songs, and pieces of informative, relevant history about the Cromwellian years after the ouster of King Charles I, and the subsequent ravaging of Ireland as Cromwell and his men sought to destroy everything Irish, Catholic, and anything in between.
This is Erin Hart's very first novel and I thought it was wonderful! I was thoroughly engaged and enjoyed every second of it, not wanting it to end. I've already gone and bought her 2nd book, Lake of Sorrows. I have a feeling she's going to be one of those who can't produce fast enough for me!
Rated by buyers -
applealing and well thought out to me, a person who normally doesn't read mysteries. In the middle you might find lots of confusing threads, but stick it out till the end.
Rated by buyers -
If you like to read about history then there are a couple of ways you can go. Standard historical texts, historical fiction or books about history that are set in the present. "Haunted Ground" is one such book. Though it a murder mystery set completely in the present (year unspecified but somewhere around now) a great deal of its content has to do with (literally) digging into the past.
Did you know that anything biological buried in a peat bog doesn't decay but actually undergoes a biological change that preserves it for up to thousands of years? Pathologist Nora Gavin and archeologist Cormac Maguire do, and when a body shows up in the peat, as it does from time to time, it's their job to dig it up and try to figure out who it was.
But the body they uncover in the small village of Dunbeg is different. For one thing it isn't a body at all, but the head of a blue haired woman, perfectly preserved in the moment of her horrifying death. And something about this discovery seems to have brought up and shaken loose the case of a missing woman and child-for which everyone blames the husband, Hugh Osborn the local landowner.
Haunted by the unsolved death of her sister Nora sees Hugh's offer to Cormac her to do some archeological work in the area as an opportunity to find out what happened to his wife and son-as well as the blue haired girl from the bog. A local police officer who won't let the past be forgotten is on the case but it seems our two amateur detectives are the ones making the big breaks-and being put in danger. But as the past collides with the present there are questions that must be answered-can they be without bringing doom to our characters?
This was a really, really enjoyable mystery. Not only is it extremely creepy (as any mystery carried out in an old crumbling manor house and the moors of a soggy bog should be) but both the mystery from the past and the present are engaging and the clues throughout the book are just enough to tantalize but not enough to ruin the ending. The idea of using culture (local music, poems, myths, priest records and anthropological findings) to solve old crimes is fascinating and actually worked in this instance to identify a hundreds of years dead and gone woman.
The science of peat bogs is also really interesting as is the (admittedly scant) information in this novel about the change over Cromwell performed from catholic to protestant landowners which was something I'd never even heard of (I blame the American school system for this.)
All in all this is an engaging book with great characters, two wonderful mysteries and best of all an educational aspect. I look forward greatly to reading Erin Hart's subsequent book (a sequel!)
Five stars.
Rated by buyers 
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Well, I obviously didn't read the same book that most other reviewers did. I thought this book was a long-winded waste of time.
With 40 pages left in the book, I was still wondering just what this book was supposed to be about. There simply was not a cohesive storyline here. Was this book about finding the identity of the blue haired girl or about finding Mina Osborne and her child, or about the relationship between Cormac and Nora or about Devany's problems with his work and home life...honestly I was never really sure and it made for a slow read.
The author really over does it with her descriptions (Sue Grafton would be impressed), and yet I never got a good sense of anything she described. If someone were to ask me to describe a Bog, I couldn't based on what I read here. There were so many cliché's in this story as well, it seemed as if the author was trying very hard to incorporate everything she had ever read in mystery books into this one and it just didn't work. I can't recommend it.
Rated by buyers -
I was entranced by this story - the landscape, the characters, the plot, the writer - everything was beautiful. Erin Hart knows how to write, and how to keep a reader intrigued. I especially appreciated the extra chapters at the end. Rather than following other writers of this genre, Hart actually FINISHED the story! Far too many mysteries end with the solution of the crime, while leaving you hanging about what happened to the characters you've come to know throughout the story. Thank you Erin for letting us know what happened next!
Buy this book, read this book, buy more copies to give to friends who appreciate good storytelling!
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