‘How to Get to Heaven From Belfast’ series review: Sisterhood, suspense and sass come together in Lisa McGee’s humorous mystery

Lisa McGee’s How to Get to Heaven From Belfast blends mystery, chaos and Catholic humour as three friends uncover long‑buried secrets across Ireland

Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) have been close friends since school. Twenty years on, and in their late 30s now, they have remained close.

Saoirse is a successful writer with a hit television show, called Murder Code to her credit, and is all set to marry Seb (Tom Basden). Robyn is married to a man who adores her and has three children while Dara “does something in computers” and looks after her mum.

When the trio hear that a close friend from school, Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe), who they were estranged from after a scary event, is dead, they decide to go to the wake. When they get to the wake in Knockdara in Donegal, everything seems off and Greta’s family behave strangely.

Greta’s husband, Owen (Emmett J. Scanlan), is the police chief at Knockdara and seems to know more than he says. Is the body in the coffin, Greta or someone else? If it is someone else, where is Greta? How does Jodie (Selin Hizli) who seems to have met Greta the day she died, fit into all this?  

Do the present events have anything to do with the fire and the scary cabin in the woods 20 years ago? There is a sigil that the girls have tattooed on them which seems to pop up at inopportune times.  

Apart from multiple trips between Belfast and Donegal, the hunt for truth takes our amateur sleuths to a swanky resort in Portugal, to a nursing home, a lighthouse, and a ruined village called Caille Neamh where the veil between heaven and earth is thin.