The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries

Brenna Briggs is the author of eight Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries and one for adults:

MAIDS: Mothers Addicted To Irish Dancing 

She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into a third generation Irish American family, where for many years, she thought that eating green-dyed bakery bread and sugar cookies with green icing on Saint Patrick's Day were the best things about being Irish. Brenna attended St. Mary's Academy in South Bend, Indiana, and St. Mary's College-Notre Dame where she studied history and theatre. She finished her college at Indiana University and was a professional Equity and SAG actress until she grew up. Her parents were both teachers--her father at SMC taught history for forty years and her mother taught English and Remedial Reading in the South Bend High School district along with religious studies in the local Catholic High Schools.  

Briggs' essays and short stories have been featured in Hornpipe Magazine, Irish American Post, Canada's Irish Connections, County Sligo Quarterly Review, BellaOnline, Irish Dancing & Culture Magazine and  other American-Irish periodicals and newspapers. 

In 2004 Brenna and her family moved from Wisconsin to County Sligo, Ireland. She returned to the U.S. in 2009.  She now writes from the "Driftless Area" of Wisconsin which was bypassed by the glaciers and not flattened like most of the Midwest. Lately, she spends time driving along the Mississippi River where she works on Part II of her next book: Liffey Rivers and the Mystery of the Whispering Trees. 

    

In THE MYSTERY OF THE SPARKLING SOLO DRESS CROWN, Book #1, Liffey Rivers uncovers an international diamond smuggling ring in St. Louis at the Celtic Arch Feis and soon discovers she has a knack for solving mysteries. Book #2, THE MYSTERY OF THE WINKING JUDGE finds Liffey Rivers in London at the National Portrait Gallery where she realizes that one ot its most famous portraits is a fake. After massive chaos following this discovery, she and her father go to Ireland where she solves the art theft mystery at a feis in County Sligo. Book #2 ends with an astonishing cliff-hanger. In Book #3, THE SECRET OF THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MOON, Liffey faces her most complicated and dangerous mystery-adventure to date. It takes place in Ireland, Chicago and Wisconsin--and on the top of County Sligo's mountain Knocknarea where Liffey encounters her past and future. Book#4, IN THE SHADOW OF THE SERPENT, is a thriller. Not only must Liffey somehow manage to survive repeated encounters with the lethal Black Mamba snake on safari and at the Johannesburg Feis in South Africa, she also discovers an amazing family secret while she outwits the head of the biggest conflict diamond organization in the world. Another cliffhanger--this one terryifying--wraps up this segment in which Liffey's survival instincts are put to the ultimate test. Book#5 THE ALASKAN SUN, seems at first to be a short reprieve from  Liffey's dangerous post-St. Louis life. She is on an Alaskan cruise with her family and BFF from Ireland. However, her life is not serene for long as she soon figures out that she is being protected by Interpol while being tracked by her worst nightmare. Her astonishing 'discovery' in South Africa joins her for a happy ending before Liffey's life ramps up again in THE MYSTERY OF THE POINTING DOG. This Liffey Rivers mystery is also an historical novel in that it  is intertwined with a real-life event from Wisconsin's mid 1800's frontier history. The suspenseful conclusion of this intriguing story is layered with search and rescue events and the discovery of a hidden gold mine. The 7th book is THE MYSTERY OF THE WHISPERING TREES and features Liffey leading a normal life for the time being until--her worst fears are confirmed and she must literally confront them head on. Part One ends with yet another chilling cliffhanger and part two will be avaialble in August. The only book of Liffey Rivers  Short Stories, FOUR MINI MYSTERIES, was originally serialized and published in Irish Dancing Magazine over a period of three years. There are four short adventures: THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING NOVICE, THE CASE OF THE CLUMSY CLOWNS, THE WEREWOLVES OF OSSORY and THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPORARY TROPHY.