Death at Christy Burkes’s. Anne Emery. 2011. The seventh Monty Collins/Brennan Burke novel is set in Ireland and is really more about the “Irish Problem” and Brennan’s fellow priest, Michael O’Flaherty than Monty Collins and Brennan Burke. All of them are Ireland and Burke and O’Flaherty’s are determined to discover who is defacing the wall of Christy Burke’s pub which originally belonged to Burke’s grandfather. Monty and his wife, Maura appear occasionally; they are still separated. And Brennan provides some un-asked-for marriage counseling. And we are given some insight into Burke and O’Flaherty’s Catholicism, but not enough as this is what attracted me to Emery’s novels originally, this and setting of Nova Scotia. In the process of investigating the vandalism, Emery has the characters relate facts about Ireland and its struggles. Had I not already read Frank Delaney’s Ireland and Tipperary and Leon Uris’ Trinity, I would have found this background material more interesting—well, it’s not that is isn’t interesting, fascinating even, but I know it already! The novel is well written, the mystery intriguing and the ending is completely unexpected. I do wish she’d put Monty and Brendan back in Halifax and let them solve church-related mysteries. ( )