annieb123's Review of Murder on an Irish Farm (Irish Village Mystery, #8)

by Carlene O'Connor

In this enchanting new read in the fan-favorite series from a USA Today bestselling author, garda of County Cork, Ireland, Siobhán O’Sullivan and Macdaras Flannery, are about to get married at last. But just as the rowdy O’Sullivan brood and all the regulars of the local bistro have gathered at the church, the nuptials come to an abrupt halt when the discovery of an unidentified skeleton puts the wedding on pause…

If only her mother could be here! The entire O’Sullivan brood—not to mention the regulars from Naomi’s Bistro—have gathered at St. Mary’s Church for the wedding of Siobhán and Macdara. It’s not every day you see two garda marrying each other. Only Siobhán’s brother James is missing. They can’t start without him.

But when James finally comes racing in, he’s covered in dirt and babbling he’s found a human skeleton in the old slurry pit at the farmhouse. What farmhouse? Macdara sheepishly admits he was saving it as a wedding surprise: he purchased an abandoned dairy farm. Duty calls, so the engaged garda decide to put the wedding on hold to investigate.

James leads them to a skeleton clothed in rags that resemble a tattered tuxedo. As an elderly neighbor approaches, she cries out that these must be the remains of her one true love who never showed up on their wedding day, fifty years ago. The garda have a cold case on their hands, which heats up the following day when a fresh corpse appears on top of the bridegroom’s bones. With a killer at large, they need to watch their backs—or the nearly wedded couple may be parted by death before they’ve even taken their vows. . .

“Fans of charming Irish mysteries will delight in the ways this convoluted case ensnares the heroine and her supporting cast.”— Kirkus Reviews

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Murder on an Irish Farm is the 8th Irish Village cozy mystery by Carlene O'Connor. Released 22nd Feb 2022 by Kensington, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is such a well written and engaging mystery, set in Ireland. Despite being the 8th book in the series, I had no trouble at all following the story or keeping the characters straight. It works very well as a standalone and it's written well enough that I'm inclined to seek out the earlier books whilst waiting for the next installment.

The book opens dramatically enough with one of the MC's brothers, who should be the best man in her wedding bursting into the church, already late for the actual nuptials, exclaiming that he's found a (long dead) body in a slurry pit on a dairy farm. The MC and her fiance are both law enforcement, detective sergeant (him) and garda officer (her). The plot revolves around the unraveling of the cold case disappearance/murder from 50 years ago, alongside the modern crimes which occur as fallout.

A strong subplot element has to do with falconry and birds of prey and I found those aspects really fascinating. The author is either involved with rehab/birds of prey or has really good research resources. Either way, it's fascinating to read and added a lot of atmosphere.

Although the author is apparently American, the dialogue, spelling, and vernacular are Irish standard (torch, lorry, crisps, chipper (note, not chippy)). It shouldn't present any problems in context for readers outside the UK/Ireland.

Four and a half stars. Entertaining and well written. A diverting read for fans of the genre.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Murder on an Irish Farm (Irish Village Mystery, #8)

by Carlene O'Connor

Reviewed by annieb123 on Mar 3, 2022

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