Murder in an Irish Village

by Carlene O'Connor

I alternated between listening and reading this and LOVED the audible narrator.  If you have a choice, I highly recommend listening to this one!

I REALLY enjoyed this book.  As soon as I thought I had the mystery all figured out, someone would say or do something that surprised me...I had NO idea who the killer was until the very end.  This was SO well written.  I would add a caution for language...but other than that this was such a great murder mystery.

Some favorite moments/quotes:

"Her da’s favorite Sean O’Casey quote rose up in her: It’s my rule never to lose me temper till it would be detrimental to keep it." pg. 7

" “I can’t arrest someone for odd behavior,” Macdara said. “If I could, there would barely be anyone left in town.” " pg. 156

"Save your strength for your darkest days, her mam used to say when Siobhán was bothered over some trifle of a problem—a boy who didn’t fancy her, or a friend who didn’t invite her to go shopping with the other girls, or a less than perfect mark in school, or heaven forbid she gained half a stone over the holidays. Such were the worries that used to rock her world. Silly, how much time human beings wasted on things that didn’t matter." pg. 251

My favorite character was Garda Macdara 💝 and I cannot wait to read book two!

PS - remember how I said I was going to take a break from Dani Pettrey?  Well, two of her other books from an earlier series were available from our library and so really, how could I say no?  I quickly devoured them 😏.  I didn't like them as much as I did her Coast Guard series, but fun fact - Noah Rowley makes an appearance in book two of that series (Still Life is the name of that book).

PPS - met two other reading challenge requirements with this book - Calendar of Crime reading challenge 2023 (month related theme - IRELAND 💚 ) and Cruisin' Thru the Cozies (mystery based outside the US)