Haunted Ground by Erin Hart

Haunted Ground is the first book I have read by Erin Hart, but it certainly won't be the last.  The Irish location, the authentic small-village feel, the multi-layered mysteries, and the cast of credible suspects all kept me hooked until the very end.

Two farmers cutting turf in the west of Ireland make a grisly discovery—the perfectly preserved severed head of a beautiful young woman with long red hair. Called out to the bog to investigate, Irish archeologist Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin are thrown together by their shared curiosity about her fate.

Archaeologist Cormac Maguire is quickly called to the scene—"bog bodies" are always a remarkable find, sometimes centuries old but still close to their original condition. Cormac and Nora embark on a mission to determine the identity of the beautiful young woman and what led to her brutal fate.

But there are other mysteries buried within this small Irish town as well. Villagers are still suspicious of Hugh Osborne, a local landowner whose wife and young son disappeared abruptly two years ago without a trace. As Cormac and Nora dig into the background of the enigmatic redhead, policeman Garrett Devaney quietly reopens the Osborne case. As deeper layers of secrets are revealed in each mystery, sleeping dangers are awakened, and past deaths could translate into future murders.