Come Through Your Door

A baffling murder investigation unearths the spotty history of an Irish psychiatric institution in the entertaining if overbusy latest entry in O’Connor’s County Kerry series (after You Have Gone Too Far). As Irish veterinarian Dimpna Wilde walks in her father’s funeral procession, she notices that her employee, Niamh Dowd, who was supposed to be there with her boyfriend, Mark Gallagher, is missing. Hours later, Dimpna discovers a blood-soaked, amnesia-stricken Niamh on the side of the road and takes her home. When they arrive, they find a woman’s corpse in Niamh’s bed, but Niamh swears she has no idea how it got there. Meanwhile, Mark is nowhere to be found, and Dimpna can’t find any record of his existence. Detective inspector Cormac O’Brien eventually takes up the case, identifying the dead woman and noticing unmistakable similarities to the recent unsolved murder of a psych ward employee who was investigating a serial killer before she died. O’Connor relies on a few too many false identities to fuel the book’s preponderance of third-act plot twists. Still, she’s a pro at using cliffhangers to pull the plot forward, and as O’Brien’s investigation deepens, fascinating details emerge about the history of Ireland’s treatment of the mentally ill. Despite some bumps, this should satisfy the author’s fans. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Oct.)