I love Cora Harrison's series about a lady Brehon Judge living in the Burren region of west Ireland, when times were slower and murder demanded, if not retribution, at least compensation. With A SHAMEFUL MURDER we come forward several centuries and take a new direction, to southerly Cork City and the life of a nun.

Cork suffers from serious flooding even today, with traders sanguine about shop refitting and lost profits. But how hard must life have been during the floods of the past? Built on islands and marshes around a harbour at the mouth of the River Lee, Cork suffers both from rainfall events and high tides. Reverend Mother Aquinas finds a dead girl during just such a flood, in 1923. The good lady teaches schoolchildren in the hope that they will find work in shops. The city has seen turbulent times of late, with the War of Independence causing a whole shopping street to be burnt down by occupying soldiers, followed by the tragic Civil War. Her pupils can't benefit from any wealth in the country. Patrick Cashman, a former pupil and now a Civil Guard, attends the body and observes that the dead young woman was well dressed, with satin gown, kid gloves and an evening bag. How did a merchant's daughter end up dead in a drain?

I enjoy seeing horse power, lamp lighters and the Cork Examiner newspaper create a great sense of time and place. A sharp-eyed young woman reporter sees plenty of detail, determined that this not be passed off as a Republican killing. Georgian houses and their wealthy occupants show up the affluent side of the trading city, while children scavenge and beg for food. Mother Aquinas can't right all social wrongs, but maybe she can make the guilty person answerable for the death of Angelina Fitzsimons.

Buildings on our tour include the courthouse and an insane asylum where even wealthy women are confined for an addiction to laudanum (opiate). There's also a cowshed where Republicans hide out with their new Lee-Enfield rifles. If you want a virtual tour of Cork City's past you could hardly do better. The sights, sounds and smells will drag you to the sewers and twirl you through the salons. Cora Harrison lives on the Burren and has written about Jane Austen as well as Irish history tales for young readers. With her new Reverend Mother Aquinas series she has begun a splendid new journey and this first installment, A SHAMEFUL MURDER, has to be called a triumph.