Pat McDermott

Unholy Crossing Pat McDermott

A Spectral Stowaway Opens the Door to Ireland's Pagan Past... It's 1912, and America has lost its charm for Noreen Carbury, an educated young lady from Ireland. For five long years, Noreen has looked after the children of Boston's well-to-do. Homesick and vexed by the gentry's demeaning views toward immigrants, she schedules a voyage to visit her family in County Sligo. Beneath the clothing and gifts she packs in her steamer trunk, Noreen conceals a wooden box whose grisly contents she's promised to transport to Ireland. She boards a splendid new steamship expecting a crossing fit for a queen, yet her trunk has somehow harbored a spirit who plagues her during the week-long trip. She believes that once she delivers the box, the phantom will leave her alone. Although she keeps her promise, the visitations grow more sinister, pitting her strict Catholic upbringing against Ireland's pagan past. To protect the reputation of the man she loves, Noreen says nothing of the mysterious incidents. For decades, she bears the burden alone, until the elderly woman she becomes confesses the spine-chilling tale of the Unholy Crossing.