This was a free download from Net Galley in exchange for a book review.

Heather Graham has written a fun story in Cry of the Banshee.  It is a supernatural mystery that kept me guessing until the end wondering who caused the deaths and why. The supernatural element of the story created interest. The story is 125 pages long digitally which would make it a novella. The story is another in Graham’s Krewe of Hunters series, although it was the first I have read.  

The story is set in Ireland in Castle Darien, ancient home of Angela Hawkins Crow and her second cousin, Moira Hawkins. Moira inherited the home from her grandmother for whom she gave up an acting career to move back to Ireland to take care of.  

Now Moira hears a banshee cry in the night just before tragedy strikes. She knows the legends of the banshee and is convinced one is warning her when a death is near. Following a recent ghost tour Moira was awakened by the wailing banshee and discovers a woman dead in a bathroom. Desperate, she called on her cousin in the FBI to come help sort the situation. Angela and her husband, Jackson, head for Ireland on the next flight. 

At first the death looks like a tragic heart attack until Angela and Jackson begin to dig deeper and suspects begin to emerge. A closer look at the autopsy reveals murder as the cause of death. Soon Angela is talking to the banshee and she and Jackson along with local Inspector Angus McCray are teaming up to catch a killer or killers and discover the motive behind it all.  

I enjoyed Cry of the Banshee. The characters are well developed and the story flows. I did miss some things as I had not followed the character development from the beginning and would like to go back to the beginning of the series to watch their development. This is my personal preference. The story is a good stand alone, and the reader is not missing keys to other stories by not having read previous books. I thought the interaction between the characters was appropriate, and there was no excessive use of language or sexuality. There were occasional uses of language but not to the extent that it interfered with my reading of the story. The sexuality was between a married couple and was not explicit.  

The use of a banshee gave the story a supernatural element and made the story fun. Where banshees in lore were often terrifying harbingers of death of family members, the use of the banshee here is mournful and a warning of a tragic event to come of a death that may affect the hearer. So, its use here lightened the tone and kept the story from becoming too dark.  

I would rate Cry of the Banshee 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to anyone over the age of 16 because of the elements of language, sexuality and paranormality. I would certainly read another of Heather Graham’s books and will be on the lookout for more.  

All for One  

Angela