The Rising of the Moon

By Sheila Connolly

“Dinty’s Bar has occupied the same corner in Cambridge since before I was born. Not the Cambridge with the glitzy shops and exotic restaurants catering to parents dropping their little darlings off at the Big H, or the Cambridge filled with techy wonks. Dinty’s keeps a toehold in the back end of Cambridge, between Central Square and the river. Its patrons come from the neighborhood and they’re pretty consistent: blue-collar, mostly construction workers, a scattering of cops and firefighters, all Irish in some way or another. Somehow this little area called Cambridgeport has escaped the gentrification that has crept through the city, and that’s the way the people here like it.

I’m the one who doesn’t belong. I was one of those pampered students, and when I graduated I didn’t know what I wanted to do, or at least I knew what I didn’t want to do. I wanted some time with no grades, no letters of recommendation, no internships and interviews to make a professor or parent proud. Nope, I just wanted to stick around for a while and breathe. My bewildered parents didn’t put up much of an argument, and as a graduation present they gave their baby boy enough cash to put a deposit on a top-floor apartment in a rundown triple-decker, with enough left over to buy a bed and a kitchen table with a couple of chairs.

I heard about the opening behind the bar at Dinty’s through a friend of a friend, and I’d wandered in with no expectations and gotten the job. Just for the summer, I thought. Three summers later I’m still here. After one of those increasingly rare calls from my folks, I try to convince myself that I’m collecting information for a novel that I’ll probably never write. Mostly I’m drifting and watching. It suits me, at least for now.”

And so begins the latest short story from New York Times bestselling mystery author Sheila Connolly. Loosely based on an old Irish ballad, "The Rising of the Moon" tells the tale of a young bartender at an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and how, together with the community, he takes a stand against crime.

In addition to the story, readers will get a sneak peek into the first book in Sheila’s new County Cork Mystery Series, "Buried in a Bog."

About the Author:

Sheila Connolly began writing mysteries in 2001, and has since been nominated for an Agatha Award twice. Her most recent books are the New York Times bestselling "Sour Apples" (Orchard Mystery Series) and "Fire Engine Dead" (Museum Mystery Series). Her new series, set in Ireland, will debut with "Buried in a Bog" in 2013. Sheila lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and three cats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing
• Release date: Nov 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781937349547

Sheila Connolly

SHEILA CONNOLLY (1950-2020) published over thirty mysteries, including several New York Times bestsellers. Her series include the Orchard Mysteries, the Museum Mysteries, The County Cork Mysteries, and the Victorian Village Mysteries. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Book preview

Books by Sheila Connolly

Orchard Mysteries

One Bad Apple

Rotten to the Core

Red Delicious Death

A Killer Crop

Bitter Harvest

Sour Apples

Called Home

Museum Mysteries

Fundraising the Dead

Let’s Play Dead

Fire Engine Dead

Dead Letters

County Cork Mysteries

Buried in a Bog

(coming in 2013)

Writing as Sarah Atwell

Glassblowing Mysteries

Through a Glass, Deadly

Pane of Death

Snake in the Glass

The Rising of the Moon

Sheila Connolly

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The Rising of the Moon

Sheila Connolly

Copyright © 2012 by Sheila Connolly

Material excerpted from Buried in a Bog copyright © 2012 by Sheila Connolly

Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

Published by Beyond the Page Publishing at Smashwords

Beyond the Page Books

are published by

Beyond the Page Publishing

www.beyondthepagepub.com

ISBN: 978-1-937349-54-7

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control