The Bertra Beach Mystery

Previously published as The Red Shoes Mystery

A burnt-out car on the Mayo coast. A young woman’s body inside. Someone wanted her erased.

Detective Inspector Martin O’Shea is dragged from his bed before dawn and out to Bertra Beach, where a Toyota Avensis still smoulders in the morning heat. The victim is unrecognisable — except for her red shoes, the one clue the fire didn’t destroy.

By his side is Detective Sergeant Deirdre Maguire, sharp-eyed, unflappable, and armed with coffee because she knows exactly what her boss is like at this hour. Together they begin picking apart a strange a car with no plates, a body that couldn’t escape and no sign of the driver who fled into the night.

When a local man comes forward with camera footage of the blaze, the investigation jolts to life — but the recording only deepens the mystery. Who was the woman? Who brought her here? And why burn her where tourists stop to watch the sunset?

O’Shea and Maguire know one the killer is out there, and someone in Westport knows more than they’re saying.