Declan Burke fled Ireland with his family four decades earlier after refusing an order from his IRA commander.
Seemingly out of the blue he decides to return to his homeland with his sons Terry and Father Brennan. They both are concerned why Declan wants to risk awakening enemies and secrets that have remained dormant for so long.
When Terry disappears after an evening out, Brennan and Declan turn to family members and Detective Shay Rynne for help.
That’s the set-up and all you need to get started, but of course you’ll see there is a rich environment to delve into.
What is particularly enjoyable about Declan is Emery’s refusal to turn Irish history into mere background decoration.
The political conflict is deeply personal, shaping marriages, friendships, loyalties, and family relationships across generations.
Declan is a fascinating character. Proud, guarded, stubborn, and not always easy to like, but entirely believable. His return to Ireland feels less like a homecoming than a reckoning. Well recommended read.
Anne Emery’s Collins–Burke Mysteries
Anne Emery’s series is known as the Collins–Burke mysteries, as Father Brennan Burke shares the central role with Monty Collins, a Halifax criminal defence lawyer. With the publication of Declan in June 2026, the series comprises fourteen novels.
While many of the mysteries are based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the series has a much wider reach, travelling through New York, Ireland, Belfast and Berlin. The Burke family’s complicated history provides an important continuing thread. Father Brennan repeatedly finds that crimes in the present are rooted in political violence, wartime secrets or choices made decades earlier. Individual mysteries can be enjoyed as stand-alones, this is a series that benefits greatly from being read in order as Brennan’s friendships, personal struggles, and family history accumulate from book to book.
~ June Lorraine Roberts
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