This is a big week for Siobhan O’Sullivan. Not only do they have a new garda officer joining them in Kilbane, there is also a new bookshop opening in town, and it’s her 29th birthday. And as much as she’s excited about spending her birthday with her 5 brothers and sisters and fiance Macdara Flannery, she is also looking forward to helping train new garda Aretta Dabiri, who was born in Nigeria. But most of all, she has been looking forward to the opening of Turn the Page.
Bookshop owners Oran and Padraig McCarthy had invited three Irish authors to to the opening week of the bookshop. Each author has found some success on their own, but at the end of the week, a successful publishing agent will sign one of the authors to a contract. Darren Killroy is the agent to a popular fantasy writer, and signing with him will take any of these author’s career to a higher level. It’s a huge honor, and the McCarthys are counting on the publicity of the signing to help put their new bookshop on the map.
Nessa Lamb is known for her novel Musings on a Hill. It got enough notoriety to get her on a list of 40 authors under 40 to watch, so she has some momentum. Lorcan Murphy has popular Western and mystyer series. And Deidre Walsh announces that she has been working on a tell-all memoir that will rock the publishing world with its revelations. Killroy has his work cut out for him trying to choose which author to represent, when Deidre is killed in a dark corner of the bookshop, pages of Nessa’s novel in her mouth.
Was Dierdre killed for the secrets she knew, and the ones she was about to about to reveal in her new book? As Siobhan and Macdara investigate, they learn more about the cutthroat world of publishing. But will they be able to find the killer in time, or will they get too close to the secrets that are worth killing for and find out just how cutthroat bookish secrets can be?
Murder in an Irish Bookshop is the seventh book in Carlene O’Connor’s Cozy Irish Murder Mystery series. Siobhan and her siblings (known as the O’Sullivan Six) fill these books with warmth and humor, and the hard working officers of the Garda keep solving the crimes through careful observation, diligent hard work, and insightful interrogations.
I am a big fan of these charming mysteries. They all bring Ireland to life through the people and places, and the mysteries are interesting and challenging. Murder in an Irish Bookshop is the perfect addition to the series, from the first page through to the last, and even beyond, to the bonus recipe for Eoin’s Irish Stew at the end. If you’re looking for a quick read, a lovely setting, strong characters, and a compelling mystery, then this is the series for you.
Egalleys for Murder in an Irish Bookshop were provided by Kensington Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
