Set in 1930 County Galway, a glossily satisfying novel of romantic suspense (this Irish author's first to be published here) with all the cherished staples: a gilded family with at least one sinister nut embedded within, old houses, and, here, even a touch of the supernatural tuned to the evil-repellent heroine. Peg Donlon, of a struggling farm family, well-off Cissie, and Mary are fast chums in boarding school, and all will be touched- -heavily--by the whims and ways of the elegant Fitzallens, owners of the estate of Glenallen, crouched in the shadow of the ``fairy mountain'' Knockshee. Handsome Peter Fitzallen, adored by Cissie, does deign to semi-court her now and then; his brother Brian woos and wins Peg; and Mary has a gauzy future in which a Frenchman, Lucien, may be dimly seen. Also prominent in the Fitzallen family is sister Harriet--cold, cruel and lethal. Dreadful events lie ahead for the three friends: murders, attempted and accomplished, psychic crippling, and suicide. It is during WW II, with Peg married and a mother, that the fairy mountain tells a tale, and in the Epilogue, a ghostly presence writes finis to a tragic mystery. For the tragedy-and-teacup audience, a well-crafted entertainment.
