Dear Great Book Guru, I just came back from Sea Cliff’s Polar Bear Plunge - what fun! While at the beach, some people were talking about a mystery their book club had chosen. It was set on Long Island but had an Irish twist. It sounded great - any thoughts? Polar Bear Plunger.......... Dear Polar Bear Plunger, THE IRISH GOODBYE by Heather Aimee O’Neill is a wonderful book to start the new year. Set on the North Fork of Long Island - perhaps Greenport - the novel opens in 1990 where we meet three sisters: Maggie, Caitlin, and Alice Ryan and their brother Topher. A terrible boating accident has just occurred, and a young friend, Daniel Larkin, is dead. To the girls’ confusion and horror, Topher is taken away by the local police. The next chapter fast forwards to 2015. The sisters are back at the family home for the holidays, each with an intriguing, albeit troubling life story. Their mother who had been raised in an Irish orphanage is viewed by all as strict and very judgmental. Each sister harbors secrets she desperately wants to hide from her mother. Into this turmoil the question of Topher and the boating accident arises, and we realize each of the sisters knows much more than has been revealed. The term “Irish goodbye” has come to mean slipping away from a party to avoid long farewells and in this story there has been a ghostly departure that still haunts the Ryan family after twenty-five years. A compelling read and highly recommended!