It begins with a simple request from a dying woman to her sister: Go to Ireland and keep a rendezvous planned 31 years prior with an Irish man she met and loved for a brief span of days and never saw again -- but never forgot.

Susanna Cassidy, a professor and researcher with a special interest in the Irish peace process, is there with her sister Julia during her final months. Julia is dying from cancer, leaving behind her unfaithful husband David and their somewhat estranged, 30-year-old daughter Rachel.

A little backstory: David had dated Susanna before marrying Julia, attempted (unsuccessfully) to hook up with Susanna after marrying Julia, and had a number of affairs with other women in an attempt to find someone just like her. He tries to worm his way back into her life before Julia's body has time to grow cold. Susanna, who counts herself lucky for having dodged that particular bullet years before -- and who has remained unmarried ever since -- does not reciprocate David's affections, although he finds that hard to believe.

She agrees to her sister's request, scheduling a working trip to Ireland and taking along the collection of Yeats poetry that Julia's long-ago Irish lover had given her before they parted. She doesn't really expect the mysterious Michael Lynch to show up for the meeting, but finds herself standing in the rain at the appointed spot all the same. Suddenly, he's there....

Of course, he thinks she's Julia. And Susanna, overwhelmed with the emotion of the moment, panics and doesn't set him straight. They hit it off....

And, the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes for her to admit that she's been lying to him all long.

But then Rachel decides to come to Ireland to walk in her late mother's footsteps. And, coincidentally enough, Rachel meets and falls for Michael's son Gerry.

And then David decides to come to Ireland to claim Susanna as his own. He finds an ally in a tempestuous Irish fiddler who has set her own cap for the widowed Mr. Lynch and doesn't appreciate Susanna's interference.

Much of A Step Across is a compelling romance, mixed with a bit of passionate Irish travelog, plenty of music and a pinch of Northern Irish politics. The relationship that builds between Michael and Susanna is a pleasure to witness -- and her difficulty in maintaining the fiction of her late sister's identity is as frustrating for the reader as it is for her. So, too, is the sudden intrusion of The Troubles in the idyllic life they've built over the course of just a few brief weeks together.

There's a lot going on here, and Chet and Laurie Williamson handle it with a great deal of grace and skill. Readers who are familiar with Chet's usual oeuvre -- dark and psychological horror -- should be warned not to look for that here. There are a few toxic personalities in the mix, but no horror or mystery at play. The characters are finely developed, feeling at all times like someone you'd be likely to enjoy meeting.

Let's be honest here. I know Chet and Laurie and consider them friends, albeit friends I see far too rarely. I played in an Irish duo with Chet for several years, and I even took a too-brief trip to Ireland with Chet more than two decades ago. As such, I thoroughly enjoyed traveling along with Susanna on her quick tour through places I remember well -- particularly the renowned Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin, on the coast of Co. Clare. Oh, how I wish I could have shared some music and pints with her on that trip! And I would absolutely love to visit the Lilting Banshee, Michael's out-of-the-way (presumably fictional) pub in Galway that sounds like something close to Heaven, and which is named for a tune that Chet and I used to play together.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Step Across, even more than I liked the couple's first novel together, 2020's Murder Old & New. As before, I would love to know more about Chet and Laurie's collaborative process, and perhaps someday soon they'll explain it to me over a pint.

In the meantime, if you like Ireland and a story well told, you should buy this book.