Nuala Anne McGrail Books In Order

Publication Order of Nuala Anne McGrail Books

The Nuala Anne McGrail series is a set of mystery novels written by the famous American novelist Andrew M. Greeley. It consists of a total of twelve novels published between the years 1994 and 2009. The series features Nuala Anne McGrail as the main protagonist, who is depicted as a professional singer. She lives in County Galway, Ireland and falls in love with one of the other main characters of the series, Dermot Michael Coyne. McGrail possesses some psychic powers, which she uses along with her intuition to solve the mysteries around her, mainly from the past. Shortly after falling in love with Coyne, she moves to Chicago along with him. Later, she marries him and gets blessed with 4 children. McGrail continues to solve the mysteries that come her away, as well as raises her children simultaneously. Many people who know her believe that she is a little bit fey. Her husband Dermot Michael Coyne is an American citizen, who used to work for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, he gets involved in an accidental killing at a young age of 25, which forces him to retire. This event in the days of his youth makes him to take up writing for earning his livelihood as he is not able to think of doing anything else.

The eldest daughter of McGrail and Coyne, Nelliocoyne, is also believed to have some of the psychic powers of her mother. Throughout the series, men of all ages have shortness of breath and continually fall for the enchanting beauty of Nuala Anne McGrail. Apart from being excitingly beautiful, she is also described by the author as witty, smart and strong. Her singing is compared to that of the voice of an angel, however, the most important quality that she possesses is that of being psychic or fey, as she is known in the Old Country. Before coming in contact with Dermot Michael Coyne, McGrail was solving the mysteries by her own by making use of her intuitions and psychic powers. However, after meeting with him for the first time in her life, she begins to think that she could not do it without him. The two meet each other for the first time in Dublin, where Coyne was studying as an Irish-American student. After understanding her inner qualities and abilities, Coyne becomes McGrail’s devoted admirer and joins her as a spear carrier on his own.

Out of the 12 novels published in the series by Father Andrew M. Greeley, the initial novels were the ones that set the foundation of this highly successful series by becoming popular as soon as they were published. They helped the author to become a bestselling novelist and also motivated him to write more novels in the series, as well as a few other series’. The first novel of the Nuala Anne McGrail series was published by the Forge Books publishing house in the year 1994. It was titled ‘Irish Gold’. The novel features a fresh, contemporary and exciting plot full of love and suspense. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Nuala Anne McGrail is introduced as a student studying at the Trinity College in Dublin. She is depicted as a very beautiful girl and that all the men who see her, fall for her beauty immediately. Nuala Anne’s beauty was considered similar to that of a Celtic goddess. The other central character of the series, Dermot Michael Coyne is depicted as studying along with McGrail in the same Trinity College. He basically hails from Chicago but was raised in County Galway, Ireland before leaving it along with his grandparents Nell and Liam O’Rida to move to his hometown in Chicago during the time of the Troubles. In his 25 years of life, Coyne had never seen a girl as beautiful as McGrail, apart from his grandmother Nell, and had fallen for the exciting beauty before moving to Chicago. His grandparents never told him why they left Ireland, however, it was getting clearer by the passage of time as Coyne was repeatedly chased by thugs. Soon, Dermot Michael Coyne realizes that his grandparents were trying to save him from the dangers of the thugs in Ireland.

The second novel of the Nuala Anne McGrail series was published in the year 1996 by the Tor Books publishing house. It was published under the title ‘Irish Lace’. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Nuala is once again depicted as a beautiful girl with psychic powers. She is often called as a fey in the Old Country and uses her intuition and psychic abilities to solve the mysteries around her. She admits the fact that she could not anything without the help of Dermot Michael Coyne and is relieved to have him in her life. Even Dermot Michael Coyne has devoted himself to her as an admirer and considers himself as her spear carrier. The two live in Chicago in a courtship and as Nual mostly solves the mysteries from the past, their life often gets interrupted by her ‘spells’. A similar thing happens when she hears the screaming sounds of thousands of people on a quiet street of the South Shore. She becomes overwhelmed by learning that the screaming sounds were that of the Confederate soldiers, who were held as the prisoners of war.

Soon, Nuala and Dermot Coyne get involved in other controversies such as the Civil War and the mystery of sophisticated art thieves, international terrorists and politicians. However, Dermot Coyne decides to resign from the courtship with Nuala as he thinks that life along with her is not going to be simple at all. He believes that she is just like an Irish lace, pretty, delicate and thin, but a little bit complicated at the same time. The novel was very well appreciated by the readers all over the world for its highly interesting plot and colorful characters. Author Andrew M. Greeley was praised for his efforts in writing down such a beautiful psychic mystery novel and this encouraged him to write a few more novels in the series. The novel also helped him to become a bestselling author and establish himself as a noteworthy novelist. The readers, especially liked the description of history that he has given in the novel, as it gave them a chance to know more about their rich heritage and cultural history through his writings. This helped author Andrew m. Greeley to gain a lot of fans and followers.