Author: Carlene O'Connor
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book (Audiobook Available)
ISBN #: 9781496730800
Kensington Publishing
304 Pages
$26.00; $12.99 Amazon
February 22, 2022
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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...
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Siobhán O'Sullivan is preparing for her wedding to fellow garda Detective Macdara Flannery. But her brother James, who is to give her away, is missing. After learning that they must be married soon, she proceeds down the aisle with her brother Eoin at her arm. Yet before the ceremony begins, James enters, covered in mud, and, knowing it's important or he wouldn't show up that way, the wedding is postponed. Now the two have a major problem: there's a skeleton in the slurry pit of the farm that Macdara had purchased as a wedding surprise.
But when it's discovered that the body is Tommy Caffrey, who was thought to have run away the day of his own wedding fifty years before -- to the day -- along with thirty thousand quid, the two garda have a mystery to solve. Who killed Tommy? And when they arrive the next morning at the farm to further investigate, there is a crowd gathered and the once-jilted bride is crying, because now her own brother Alan lies on top of the skeleton.
With two bodies, and two murders, and many more suspects, how are they supposed to figure out if it's one murderer or two? But Siobhán has her own methods of looking at cases, as does Macdara, and together they vow to find out the truth. Unless, of course, the murderer decides to continue killing...
Siobhán is finally marrying her own one true love, Macdara, and is just as nervous as any bride would be. But it's not to be on this day, because she discovers something more important, in the form of finding out who wanted to kill Tommy Caffrey and why. But when she starts asking questions and digging into the murder, she discovers Tommy wasn't the saint his would-be bride, now married to his best friend, made him out to be.
She discovers secrets, lies, and treachery, things which may be common in a murder investigation; but how have they been held all of these fifty years? Someone isn't telling the truth, and it's her job to find out who. But what she doesn't count on is that more than one person is is lying, and it might put her in danger to keep on.
Still, as a garda, she needs to do so. But there is more afoot when she's informed by the parish priest of another issue that might change the lives of all the O'Sullivans. This she needs to put on the back burner while she tries to find a killer, but it nonetheless wears on her. Meanwhile, her fiancé Madara is trying to eat his way through Ireland and cracking jokes every chance he gets to lighten her mood. But is it going to be enough? And will she be able to figure out the case using her instincts, which have not failed her thus far?
This is the eighth book in the series, and can be read as a standalone. The books keep getting better, and while I will admit that I did struggle a bit through the first one (sometimes I have that problem with the first in a series) I am glad that I stuck with it. I had a suspicion of who the murderer was the minute that person stepped onto the page, and I am glad that I was right; but then again, I read a lot of mysteries so I am pretty good at picking up clues early on. Still, for the most part, there were plenty of red herrings, and if you haven't read a lot of mysteries, you might be steered into another direction, which is what mysteries do best.
Keep on with the book as the ending might surprise you, and Ms. O'Connor is such a delightful writer that I also read another series she authors; she has a way with descriptions and words that draw you into the story and the pictures fly right off the page. The books stay with you awhile, and that is exactly what they are supposed to do.
When the ending comes and the killer is revealed, the reasons why they killed are very sad as well as being twisted, but it all comes together nicely and the final pages are enjoyable and give us something to look forward to in the next book. Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Carlene O'Connor's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/o/carlene-oconnor/
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