DEATH IN A FAR COUNTRY

Trouble's afoot at N.Y.C.'s Irish Cultural Center, where retired history professor Brian Donodio—on his first day teaching a survey course—meets a purple-haired punk named Melisande and gets a mysterious please-can-we-meet note from visiting Irish cop Maureen Sullivan. Brian soon discovers Maureen's dead body, is interrogated by Detective ``Con'' Connolly of the NYPD, then warned not to snoop by his own daughter, Deirdre, a field agent with the INS. Brian, of course, pays no attention to her, but while Con and Deirdre are initiating a sweet romance, he stumbles on the Cultural Center director snorting coke and learns that Maureen's sister Monica, who had preceded her to the States, is missing—and Maureen had been searching for her. More bodies pile up before Brian heads for Ireland to see whether the root of the troubles lies with the IRA, drug-runners, or a forged green-card operation. Con and Deirdre will fly to Donegal just in time to rescue Brian from an infamous gang of criminals. Undemanding first-mystery fare from children's author Callahan, whose culprits are, alas, less believable—and engaging- -than the Donodios and Con.