Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Wedding Bel Blues (A Belfast McGrath Mystery #1)

Author:  Maggie McConnon
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781250001894
St. Martin's Publishing
311 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
May 31, 2016



Belfast McGrath has spent the last fifteen years avoiding her big, bustling, brash Irish family.  But when her five-star culinary career goes up in flames, she retreats to Foster's Landing - where she's immediately tapped as her cousin Caleigh's maid-of-honor.  It's a perfect recipe for disaster...especially when Bel learns that the wedding preparations include Caleigh having one last one-night stand.

When Caleigh's lover plunges from the second-floor balcony during the reception, Bel can't help but think his death was no accident.  Soon Detective Kevin Hanson, who just happens to be Bel's long-ago love, arrives on the scene - looking hotter than ever.  Heartbreak and homicide hardly help Bel to feel more at home, but if she is going to make a new beginning for herself, including putting the past behind her, she must first steer clear of a cold-hearted killer.

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I thought this would have a decent plot from the blurb, but it was pretty weak and nonsensical.  Bel has returned home after being fired in disgrace for something that wasn't even her fault.  Now she's had to move home with her tail between her legs, and is taking part in her cousin's wedding.  While there, she meets a handsome man who winds up being thrown to his death from the balcony of her family's manor house, and she wants to find the murderer so that one of her family members won't be found guilty.  To complicate matters, an old boyfriend is now a police detective, which makes it slightly awkward for her.  But finding a killer won't be easy, especially if she's looking in all the wrong places...

This could have been so much better, but it wasn't.  Her family owns a crumbling manor house that they rent out for weddings, and Bel's brothers all play in an Irish band for these weddings.  So are they only renting to people who are Irish?  Because I can't imagine that most people would hire an Irish band unless they were.  There must be an awful lot of big Irish families around there to keep the manor running.  I was wondering why they just didn't sell the place and live somewhere else.  I wouldn't live in a money pit.

Honestly, the book would have been more interesting if there were a ghost running around haunting the place; I couldn't see a single reason why they kept it - except for the fact that it was a plot device to give Bel a job in the long run.  Speaking of which, I didn't understand why she was fired when everyone knows that fresh fish might very well have bones in it.  That's why you don't just shove the entire thing in your mouth and instead pick it apart to eat it.

Plus, the blurb states as how she runs into Detective Kevin Hanson, her "long-ago love," so you're naturally thinking that they'll probably rekindle something, right?  Wrong.  Why was he even given the role of being an ex-boyfriend?  That didn't make any sense since it really added nothing to the story and he'd moved on long ago.

And the ending?  Well, let's just say that it sucked.  Big time.  Personal opinion and all that.  Because of it, I won't be reading any more books by this author.

https://www.amazon.com/Wedding-Bel-Blues-Belfast-Mysteries/dp/1250001897/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2987767100

More on Maggie McConnon's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/maggie-mcconnon/

1 comment:

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