Book review: Secrets emerge from the past

A family mystery is at the heart of this emotional rollercoaster from journalist Ann O'Loughlin

Ann O’Loughlin fleshes out a story focused on a tragic family with an engaging cast of characters. Picture: Conor Ó Mearáin

• A Secret Daughter from Ireland 
• Ann O’Loughlin 
• Bookouture, £8.99 

Set in the fictional village of Coolnamona, Co Wicklow, this is something of an emotional rollercoaster with a family mystery at its heart.

The main character, an American called Becky, mother of 17-year-old Jen, has inherited a crumbling Georgian house in Orchid Bay, Coolnamona, from her late mother, dress designer, Hilda White.

On the one hand, Hilda has left Becky a house she never knew existed. On the other hand, Hilda has left her daughter with a mountain of debts having taken a risk to expand her business which failed. 

Becky has to put her mother’s Manhattan apartment and a small property on Rhode Island on the market. She is a co-signatory in the business so the debts landed on her.

With nothing to lose, she uproots herself and Jen and arrives at the house which, she learns, had been the centre of life in the area, owned by the Reilly family. 

Apart from the debts and the failed business that Becky had also worked in as a designer, there is another reason for her departure from New York. 

It is revealed well into the story and explains just why Becky is so rattled.

Feeling unmoored and at a loss, Becky has to make a go of things in Ireland, despite the fact that Jen is totally against the idea of living in Coolnamona.

Before leaving for Ireland, Becky held up the key to the vacant house in the Irish village showing it to her friend Sadie. 

Sadie, who thinks moving to Ireland is nuts, says: “That seems more like a jailer’s key than a house key.”

However, Becky is a survivor and sets about making the house habitable.

She decides to run a cafe from Coolnamona with the help of local chef Ben, who has warm grey eyes and a kind smile. 

This is the love interest but Becky, although keen, rebuffs Ben’s romantic overtures, saying she isn’t ready.

It’s a slow burn but they are a well-matched pair — and Ben’s former career as a police investigator comes in handy.

However, before Becky can even countenance the idea of a relationship, she has to navigate some of the women in the village including Bella, who threatens Becky with a solicitor’s letter.

Bella, an elderly woman, was the sister of the beautiful Regina. 

The sisters had lived at Coolnamona with Regina’s daughter, Laura. However, Regina — who inherited Coolnamona House from her parents — threw Bella out of the house when she did something that she thought was objectionable.

Bella had been disinherited for marrying a man that her parents disapproved of. She thinks she has a claim on the house and is initially quite belligerent.

But, as is pointed out to Becky, Bella is just a lonely old woman with a grievance. She and Becky find it in their respective hearts to get along.

There is nosey Maisie who tries to tell Becky to avoid Iris, an artist left over from the hippy era, as Maisie puts it. Becky’s instincts about people are good and she and Iris get along.

The overriding image in this enjoyable yarn is a full-length portrait of Regina in a Christian Dior ball gown hanging in the hall of the house. 

She is smiling but has sad eyes. Becky feels conflicted by Regina but comfortable in her home.

When she finds letters written by Regina to her “darling daughter, Laura” which were never sent, Becky is exposed to the heartache that this woman suffered for being pig headed and judgemental. 

She alienated her daughter who walked out on her. What exactly happened? And why is Becky on the run from New York?

Apart from a coincidence important to the plot that is hard to fathom, this is a well-told story about a tragic family.