There was a time when few people, if anyone, would be interested in reading crime novels set in Ireland. We considered it as such an old, slow-moving land that it could never give us the thrills and chills of New York, Dallas or even London.

This has certainly changed in recent years, perhaps initiated by Tana French with some books with a similar sub-title. But Valerie Keogh brings Ireland smack up to date as a setting for crime novels every bit as exciting, twisting and satisfying as the output of any other land.

I have experienced her output in two e-books that collect six of her books set in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock.

The novels -- No Simple Death, No Obvious Cause, No Past Forgiven, No Memory Lost, No Crime Forgotten and No Easy Answer -- is a set of books that can be read as stand-alone novels or as almost 1,500 pages of a chronicle with recurring characters from Detective Garda Sgt. Mike West to Edel Johnson, a will-he/won't-he love interest and, of course, the indispensable superior officer.

Keogh has a great knack for giving us the unusual crimes in very ordinary circumstances. We have the victim who is not who he seems, the body in a suitcase, the man "killed by lamprey eels," two old ladies dead within a few days of each other with a big mystery surrounding each, four mummified bodies in a recycling centre and much more.

Add to that a number of minor crimes that we think of as unrelated, but which jump up to bite us.

The author is great at characters. We want the good ones to win and we cheer for the baddies to get their just desserts. You can also expect numerous, very unexpected but, as it turns out, logical twists and turns, and we end up with some stories that are crying out to be adapted for television (if there is any justice in the world).

She constructs a number of great locations, too, although I will admit that one that I thought so great that it had to be fictional -- The Lighthouse Hotel on Clare Island -- turns out to be an actual hotel, but its booked out into 2022.

If you like a good story and love to be mystified, any or all of these books will satisfy.

Be sure to check out the book series in paperback, available through Amazon.com.

Click on a cover image
to make a selection.