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Ann C. Fallon Books In Order

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Publication Order of James Fleming Books

Anne C Fallon is an American author best known for the “James Fleming Mystery” series of novels. She was born in Boston and then went to Trinity College Dublin. She would then become a professor and taught at the City University of New York and Queen’s College. Her six novels feature the character James Fleming, a lawyer who works as an amateur sleuth on the side. The first novel of the series was the 1990 published title “Blood is Thicker.” After a long hiatus, she published “Deadly Analysis” in the year 2000.

She got her first break when “Blood is Thicker” was published in “Murder Most Irish,” a collection of stories by Irish authors. It is a collection that combines the dark and light side of the Irish soul and includes the wicked Irish wit, the ballads of Irish literature, the sentimental poems and the tavern sing-alongs that have become world-famous. On the darker side are the bloody murders, melancholy and mayhem found in the James Fleming mystery series. The collection of stories included some of the biggest Irish writers of the century such as Sean O’Faolain, James Joyce, Bill Crider, Michael Jahn, and Clark Howard among many others. They show an Ireland of a different era showing its traditions and psychological dimensions. Most of the classic Irish stories were short fiction except for Anne C Fallon’s “Blood is Thicker” and “A Stone of the Heart” by John Brady. While they are not so much known, Fallen and Brady have been called the “Agatha Christie” and “Simenon” of Ireland. The novels complemented each other perfectly as Fallen wrote a suspenseful novel set in small-town Ireland while Brady set his novel in contemporary urban Ireland and exposed the darkness inherent in the setting.

“Blood Is Thicker” the first novel of the James Fleming Mystery series by Ann C. Fallon introduces the lead character James Fleming. He is a lawyer working at a prestigious law firm in Dublin though he often dabbles in some amateur sleuthing on the side. He has just been called to Violet Moore’s farm where the proprietor’s brother just turned up dead at her doorstep. What makes this so bizarre is that this is not an accidental death as the body was dropped off in a coffin on their front door before the hearse sped off. Moore and her sisters had heard the thud and opening the front door find their brother lying dead in the coffin with a knife sticking out of his chest. Fleming had been called to Kilmartin to help with the funeral arrangements but now that he is here it seems his services would be more critical in defending Violet Moore. The police have charged Moore with her brother’s homicide and while Fleming investigates, he stumbles on some secrets a lot of people would have liked to stay buried. Full of suspects, an intricate plot and excellent characterization, it is a great story but does not come with the recipes, cute little cats or gimmicky grabbers typical of the cozy mystery, even as it is a classic whodunit.

“Where Death Lies” the second novel of the series tells the story of Adriane and Harry Conroy who are happy to be back home from an African Safari. They are now back in the Georgian home in one of the posh neighborhoods of Dublin where they are due some rest. But as they are unpacking, Adrianne stumbles upon a naked dead body underneath the duvet. Just who was the stranger dead inside their house? When they report the matter to the cops, they are immediately tagged as lead suspects in the homicide. They reach out to their lawyer James Fleming who uses his private investigator skills and finds some evidence that exonerates the Conroys. It is a case that is driven by passionate women that include the dead man’s widow who is full of emotions and grief, Ari Conroy the vibrant and self-possessed woman and a brilliant and intense scholar Brona O’Connell, a renter with the Conroys. But then a second body is found and James is more determined to find the macabre killer who seems to be mocking them for their failure.

Anne C. Fallon’s third novel in the series “Dead Ends” begins with an ordinary leak. Just a little bit of water was seeping from the ceiling of the dining room at the Cromlech Lodge. For Kevin Conlon, it could not have come at a worse time since he is serving tea when it happens. But the story gets more complicated when a half-naked man falls off the ancient staircase in the lodge. The police believe that the man has died of bath salts. In the meantime, James Fleming the renowned Dublin solicitor is called into the more than one hundred and fifty-year-old lodge. His task is a simple one – draw up the will of Conlon the handsome widower. But then the police accuse Conlon of the homicide and James now has to step in to get him out of the jam. The novel is set in the shadow of the Ox Mountains in Ireland in a beautiful backdrop. James Fleming is determined to solve the subtle and ingenious crime especially since it happens on the eve of Halloween when the souls of the dead come out of their shadowy abode to walk among the living. He finds a long lost diary and in it a legacy of greed and passion.

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