THE CONNEMARA CONNECTION

About the Book

The Connemara Connection is a novel of suspense. The setting is the west coast of Ireland, the Connemara peninsula, in the early 1990's. Charley Gibson, a young CIA agent, is sent there to try and find how, and by whom, the IRA are smuggling explosives into Northern Ireland. It is suspected that an American girl is involved in bringing financial support. Therefore the involvement of our Central Intelligence.

The book opens introducing us to a group of IRA members as they plan the transfer of bomb material from a Libyan freighter off the coast of Connemara. they are Wolfe Morrison, his wife Sheila, her brother Sean and the leader, Ben. Wolfe is an idealist, committed to the dream of freedom, and Sheila is undyingly loyal to him and to the cause. Sean is a young man twisted by hate and Ben is a fierce and desperate veteran of the Irish struggles. It develops that their plan involves not only the smuggling, but the kidnapping of the Queen while she is making a secret visit with her husband to an isolated fishing lodge deep in Connemara. Their plan is to send one of their members, Kevin, to go with the American fiel, Bettina, as tourists taking a horseback trek across the mountains from Clifden on the west to Galway and then into the North. While under this cover, they will pick up the stuff and carry it over to Galway, seemingly two tourists taking the trek for recreation.

About the Author

Nancy Bradley grew up in Indiana, the daughter of a missionary minister. She was home schooled for most of her early education, then graduated from Ferry Hall, a girls' prep school north of Chicago. Married to a medical student (her brother's best friend from college) she worked as a graphic artist, doing everything from fashion ads to designing medical exhibits for the US Army and Air Force during the Korean war. When her husband's medical training was over and he finally entered practice, Bradley went back to school and studied art at the American University in Washington, DC. With two young children under foot she painted seriously for several years, exhibiting widely in the area (the Corcoran, Richmond Museum and various commercial galleries). She began her writing career by doing funny, though instructive, articles for two horse magazines, Spur and Horse Play. These were written from experience; her passion for horses has never diminished since her first ride at age two on an old work horse. Living in Virginia for most of her adult life, she has been an avid fox-hunter and competitive rider for many years. Bradley's first novel, "The Kremlin Contract", was published by Zebra in 1990. Since then she has published "Indiana" and is at work on another book. "Water of my Land". She lives in a house in the woods in McLean, VA with her husband Gene, three horses and a good dog, Mosby.