Traditional Mystery Stories of O’Nelligan and Plunkett
by Michael Nethercott
The detective team of Mr. O’Nelligan and Lee Plunkett will be featured in the novel Summoning the Dead to be published in 2013 by St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne imprint.) In this novel, murder intrudes on an eccentric circle of ghost seekers. The detectives have also appeared in three shorter tales:
- The novella “O’Nelligan’s Glory” (winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award; published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine July/August 2009 issue; chosen for inclusion in By Hook or By Crook: The Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year, published November 2010) The detectives take on the “Glory Table” murder.
- The novelette “O’Nelligan and the Perfect Man” (December 2009 Alfred Hitchcock.) Stolen artwork, a dead curator, an impeccable gallery owner.
- The novelette “O’Nelligan and the Lost Fates” (March 2012 Alfred Hitchcock. ) A fortune teller, a fatal fall, and a wealthy man who buys the fates of others.
The Plunkett/O’Nelligan tales take place in the mid-1950’s.
Mr. O'Nelligan is an Irish-born widower in his early sixties living in the moderate sized town of Thetford, Connecticut. His past professions including train conductor, schoolteacher, bricklayer, door-to-door salesman and actor. Also, in his youth, he fought in his homeland’s civil war, though he prefers not to dwell on that period. He is a devotee of classic literature and quotes Shakespeare and William Butler Yeats freely. Mr. O’Nelligan could be described as witty, analytical, pragmatic, warm, compassionate and scholarly. He fits the "amateur sleuth" designation, although he is, in fact, assisting Lee Plunkett, a young man who has reluctantly inherited his father's p.i. agency.
Though Lee Plunkett is the one with the official investigator's license, he is, in a sense, actually the "Watson" of the duo, as well as the narrator. As he himself puts it, “In my tenure, it was a struggle just to handle the infidelity and missing object cases. Dad had taken me on to give direction to my drifting life, but, within sixteen months, had died over a bowl of stew, leaving me to fumble on. Truth be told, in the year since my father’s death, I hadn’t done much to champion the family business.” That is until Mr. O’Nelligan becomes his de facto assistant and helps Lee come into his own. The unlikely pair forge a bond to take on matters of murder and mystery.
