Lisa Alber Books In Order

Publication Order of County Clare Mystery Books

Publication Order of Michael Guillebeau Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Lisa Alber is best-selling American author of Crime, Fiction, and Mystery novels. After spending with New York Bestselling novelist Elizabeth George, Alber was invited to apply for a writing scholarship from the E.G., Foundation which purposely funds upcoming writers. Alber won a grant that allowed her to quit her job for a year to dedicate her time to her fiction. Furthermore, Ms. George invited Alber to write a short story for an anthology that she edited. The Two Of The Deadliest features such notables like Susan Wiggs, Laura Lippman, Patricia Smiley, and Dana Stabenow. The author’s second short story won Walden Fellowship and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Alber was raised in Main County, California in the 1970’s. Alber studied at University of California at Berkeley where she graduated with a degree in economics and a minor in Spanish literature. In several occasions, Alber has worked as a financial analyst, librarian assistant, cocktail waitress, technical writer and a journalist. During the early 1990’s she served in the editorial departments at Warner Books and Doubleday. The author lives in Oregon with her accident prone cat and her trusty laptop. She likes red wine, photography, and scary movies. She is a participative member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

Kilmoon

Kilmoon is the first novel in County Clare Mystery by Lisa Alber. The time is June 28th, 2008 in Northern California, and we meet Merrit McCallum staring at an empty syringe lying beside her on the floor. Just next to her is a dead body of the man she has lived to call “daddy.” Her mother committed suicide several years ago. Guilty haunts Merrit; she is feeling lost and irredeemable.

With her beloved mother journal in hand, she travels all the way from California to Lisfenora, a small town located in Ireland. She makes her arrival during an annual matchmaker’s festival that makes the small town so famous. In her head, Merrit has big plans; first, she needs to meet her biological father, Liam Donellan who is popularly known in the town as the Liam the Lion, The Matchmaker of Lisfenora.

Upon her arrival in Lisfenora, Merrit takes her time to figure out how to introduce herself to her biological father. She makes herself familiar with the past by reading her mother’s journal in preparation to meet her dad, and as the festivities get underway, she braces herself to meet her father. However, things soon become awry, as Merrit finds herself being blackmailed by Lonnie and when the man ends up dead, she becomes the person responsible for the murder.
Merrit’s troubled past is catching up with her, and she also discovers that she is not the only person who claims to be Liam’s long lost daughter. She finds herself entangled in a complex web of mystery and deceit as she struggles to unravel the truth behind what the type of man her father is.

Kilmoon is a brilliant debut novel to an excellent series; it is a tale of lost love, murder, and people yearning to have a feeling of belonging in a world where life has taken some twisted turns. The author, Alber does a fantastic job of presenting the readers with a classic town full of dark secrets and then revealing each secret one by one. The story is well plotted, but what makes it more interesting is the characterization. Each of the characters presented in the story has their personal mystery, and this makes reading this novel excellent. The contrast between the two half siblings and their adoptive father and how each of the siblings handles their life challenges, the painful truths in their lives provides a brilliant character study. A more interesting character is Danny, the detective who is confronting a heavy load of personal demons while to solve the murder case and his torn loyalties when the clues point to the people he is most close to. Then there is Liam, the Irish man; he is a quirky and dash character and also father to Merrit. Furthermore, the author has done a brilliant job in providing a vivid description of the setting of this novel. Ireland had been vividly described, in other words, the setting it’s like a character itself.

Whispers in the Mist

Whispers in the Mist takes place one year after the events in first book Kilmoon, the debut novel in County Clare Mystery. Reading these books in chronological order will give you an understanding of the characters featured such as Merrit and Danny, you can also read them as stand alone because each book deals with a unique mystery.

The narrative is set in Lisfenora in Ireland when strange fog rolls in off the Atlantic. Alongside the fog comes tales of Grey Man, a predatory mythical of local lore who takes innocent souls into his lethal gloom.

After a young boy dies in the arms of DS Danny Ahern, the detective finds himself chasing his own gray man, a killer who becomes more evasive as Danny gets closer to finding the truth. Fortunately for Danny, a mute woman could be a key to solving the murder case and helping detective Danny deal with his own broken life as well, but to achieve this, she must uncover the memories from her past.

Once again the author has done a fantastic job in creating the second series installment that is intriguing to read by introducing the legend of Grey Man. This legend states that each time the fog rolls in and covers the small village, evil comes alive. This legend soon is proven correct after a body of a young man is discovered in the village pasture and soon after this first murder, a new main character Detective Sergeant Danny is introduced. Just like many other hero’s in fiction narratives, Danny is determined but troubled and struggling to deal with a broken marriage. But when the first victim dies in his arms, it is evident that he is willing to pursue this real life Grey Man regardless of the cost. Immediately after the first murder, the plot accelerates into an engaging part-psychological/ part-thriller. The characters are well crafted, rounded, and their interaction with each other is brilliant.