Not bad, just not that engaging after a while. The first in a really long “cozy” series that I may pick up again. The book just struggled at the 50 percent mark and I felt myself getting really bored. I got told the other books are really good and I should keep on reading, so will definitely do that. I enjoyed the characters, the writing, the central mystery, and why the murderer did it, but the flow was killing me. I just thought there was too much filler going on after a while.
“Murder in an Irish Village” is the first book in the “Irish Village Mystery” novels. This book sets the stage. We have Siobhán O’Sullivan who is 22 and looking after her parent’s bistro and the other siblings after the death of her parents about a year earlier. Siobhán had plans to go to college, but those plans were scuttled after her parents death in a car accident. The brother of the man who went to jail for killing Siobhán’s parents is back though saying he knows who really killed her parents and is demanding 10,000 euros from her. When Siobhán refuses she hopes to see the last of him, until she finds him dead inside the bistro. Now the garda thinks that Siobhán’s brother James did it and though she may have feelings for one of them, she takes it upon herself to investigate and clear her brother’s name. But in a small village in Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, it’s hard to do so without your neighbors knowing what you are up to.
I liked the character of Siobhán and honestly cannot remember the other 5 siblings outside of James. It was interesting how all of them fought and got along and loved each other. The siblings offered most of the hilarious moments of the book I thought.
The writing was interesting and some things I didn’t really get and had to look up (this is speckled with Gaelic) but that was okay by me. Honestly the flow was what did it in. Most cozy’s are short I realized and this one was pretty lengthy (369 pages) and after a while I was like is this over? Is this over? Nope, still going. I think the person who was the murderer changed back and forth between the same people like 5 separate times. I just got a bit, okay, this is interesting, can we move on now about it.
I thought the ending was intriguing though. Most cozy’s love to play up a love triangle for the first couple of books, but that seems to be out the window. Will definitely pick up book #2 in 2023.
