Night of the Blackbird by Heather Graham

Product Details

Synopsis

Moira Kelly has come home to Boston to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with family and friends. The last thing she expects to find in the family pub is the undercurrent of danger as talk turns to politics. All too quickly, Moira finds herself struggling with the anger of her old flame, Dan O'Hara, and the convictions of her new love, Michael McLean. Torn between them, she becomes a pawn in a conspiracy that promises to bring the violence and hatred of a different time and place to her own backyard.

This passionate, close-knit community is harboring a traitor. And as the chilling acts of evil unfold around her, Moira must face the fact that a generation is not long enough to soften revenge.

Publishers Weekly

Graham's powerful romantic thriller (after Night Heat, etc.) offers a cool, reasoned look at how Irish-Americans cope with the violence occurring in their homeland. Kelly's Pub, a family-owned establishment in Boston, is ground central for the Kelly family reunion, a St. Patrick's Day celebration and, quite possibly, a terrorist operation. When a cable TV producer, Moira Kelly, brings her boyfriend, Michael McLean, home to meet her family, she immediately senses that something is amiss. Her brother frequently disappears at all hours of the night to meet with his "associates," her father's best friend gives her cryptic warnings and later turns up dead and her ex-boyfriend, Danny O'Hara, seems to be hiding things from her. To complicate matters further, there's a serial killer on the loose who may be connected to the St. Patrick's Day conspiracy that's brewing at the pub. As the suspense mounts and the number of red herrings rises, Danny works to draw Moira away from her picture-perfect boyfriend and rekindle their old passion. The narrative's high suspense and charismatic characters will engage, but an excess of detail occasionally impedes its momentum. Unlike many romantic suspense novels, however, this gripping tale strikes a perfect balance between romance and intrigue. (Oct.) Forecast: Expect strong sales. Graham (aka Shannon Drake and Heather Graham Pozzessere) is as popular as she is prolific; she's written nearly 100 titles several of which were Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild selections and her first Mira hardcover, Hurricane Bay, is due out in April 2002. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

Heather grew up in Dade County, Florida, and attended the University of South Florida at Tampa, majoring in theater arts and touring Europe and parts of Asia and Africa as part of her studies. After college, she acted in dinner theaters, modeled, waitressed, and tended bar. After the birth of her third child, she was determined to devote her efforts to her writing: her dream. She sold her first book in 1982.

Today, this author's success is reflected not just by reader response and the over 20 million copies of her books in print, but in many other ways. In addition to being a New York Times bestselling author, Heather has received numerous awards for her novels, including over 20 trade awards from magazines such as Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur, bestseller awards from B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, and BookRak, and several Reviewers' Choice and People's Choice awards.

Heather has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, Romantically Speaking, a TV talk show that aired nationwide on the Romance Classics cable channel, and CBS Sunday News. She has been quoted in People and USA Today, been profiled in The Nation, and featured in Good Housekeeping. Her books have been selections for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. She has been published across the world in more than 15 languages and has published over 70 titles, including anthologies and short stories.

Somehow, this prolific author manages to juggle it all--family, career, and marriage--while reaching a level of success to which few can aspire.