I can see the merit in the writing, but I didn't like it much. My reasons are purely subjective: Israel got on my nerves, as did Ted. I liked both at first, but too much of a good thing is annoying. Cloying. Unsympathetic. I don't care how depressed Israel is, a librarian should be able to string together a complete sentence at least once in a book. Ted's gruffness and selective deafness never ended up revealing anything deeper and his conversational circles started off fun and amusing but soon became just tiresome.
There's a whole bookmobile full of expository writing here, and it's so well done, but again, there's soooo much of it. Halfway through the book I found myself skipping large swathes of it because, enough already.
Lastly, there's really no mystery plot here at all. Zip. It might be the most anticlimactic 'mystery' I've ever read. I might have missed something - some character building or world building that would have made the story more compelling; this is the first book I've read in the series, and it's the 5th, I think; in between finishing the book and writing this review, I had to drop off books for a library sale, and my copy went into a box. I wouldn't steer anyone away from reading it - the writing is good, the characters quirky, the setting Irish. But it was sadly not my jam.