Halloween Cupcake Murder

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Kensington Book Publishers is one of my favorite publishers.  It’s a family owned business, working on its third generation, and they publish a wide variety of books—including cozy mysteries.  For the last several years, they have been publishing holiday themed books with three novellas by three different authors.  I’ve found it’s a very good way to sample authors I don’t know and to be delighted by a new story from authors I do know. All the stories are standalones; no previous knowledge of a series is needed.

Halloween Cupcake Murder features Carlene O’Connor, Liz Ireland, and Carol J. Perry.  Since I love Perry’s Witch City Mysteries, picking this one up was a no-brainer. Her entry in the collection is “A Triple Layer Halloween Murder” and has Salem TV station manager and scryer Lee Barrett on the trail of a baker who disappears just before Halloween.  Aided by her beau, police detective Pete Mondello and her amazingly gifted cat O’Ryan, Lee tries to figure out just what has happened to the missing man.  The story was, as usual, well constructed, but the real appeal for me is the cast.  I like Lee a lot, in part because she actually does her job unlike some cozy heroines who can just take off at the drop of a hat; and I enjoy the peek behind the scenes at a tv station.  I also really like her aunt, Ibby, who is a reference librarian and I absolutely adore O’Ryan.  This story alone made the book worth buying for me.

I had been curious about Liz Ireland after reading reviews from Lesa Holstine’s blog, lesasbookcritiques.com.  Lesa is a retired librarian whose opinions I respect and when she said Liz Ireland’s Mrs. Claus books were a lot of fun, I took notice.  Yes, the heroine is that Mrs. Claus, married to the one and only Nicholas Claus and they live in Santaland. April was actually an innkeeper in Oregon before being swept off her feet by a man in a red suit, and now she has to adjust to elves, talking reindeer, and sentient snowmen.  I thought it sounded a bit daft, to be honest, but Lesa’s review made me want to take a look.  Having a novella seemed just the ticket.  After all, if I didn’t like it, there wasn’t too much to wade through.

Well, I found “Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper” was as delightful as promised.  In this adventure, Santaland is experiencing its first Halloween thanks to April. While the elves are trying to get the hang of candy corn, build a haunted ice castle, and put on a baking competition, elf Wink Jollyflake is found murdered in his employer’s bakery. It’s all a puzzle, including the murder weapon, but April Claus will figure it out!  And I am definitely reading more in this series.

“The Halloween Cupcake Murder” by Carlene O’Connor uses her Home to Ireland series as her basis.  Ex-New Yorker Tara Meehan has moved to Ireland and is opening an architectural salvage shop. Uncle Johnny sends her to Val Sharkey’s curiosity shop to pick up some Halloween decorations.  She finds some interesting items, but later Val turns up dead, his face smeared with a possibly poisoned cupcake.  Then someone turns up with a cupcake for Tara…. 

For me, this last one was the weakest story, even though I had read and liked the first book in the series.  The ending seemed rushed. I also suspect it suffered a bit by comparison, because I liked the other two so much.

There are other collections, including The Irish Milkshake Murder and The Christmas Cocoa Murders. Authors in the collections vary.

Death Writes: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter

 

Death Writes:  An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter

Reviewed by Jeanne

Benedicta O’Keeffe, better known as Ben, is a solicitor in Glendara, a town on the Irish Inishowen Peninsula.  When a concerned neighbor contacts her expressing concern that there are strangers living in Ben’s parents’ home.  Ben and her boyfriend, police officer Tom Molloy, travel to Dublin to see exactly what is going on. She finds her parents to be somewhat evasive about their lodger, who seems to be exerting a great deal of influence on the older couple. Ben talks her parents into coming to Inishowen for a visit, hoping they will open up if the stranger isn’t around.  As an enticement, she tells them that reclusive author Gavin Featherstone is going to make an appearance at the Glendara literary festival—the first time he’s done a public appearance in years. Unfortunately, Featherstone collapses while on stage and is pronounced dead. But is it natural causes or murder?

The Inishowen mysteries are all solid mysteries with a strong sense of place, but cozy readers might not find them as warm and fuzzy as they expect.  They’re not especially dark, just more straightforward mysteries. Relationships certainly play a role but aren’t necessarily central to the plot, but the solution is character driven.  It’s not exactly a “follow the clues” sort of mystery, but the solution makes sense. There are also a couple of neat plot twists thrown in for good measure.

While I have read others in this series, I don’t think you have to have read any others to enjoy this one. The story arc about Ben’s family relationships has extended over other books, but there’s enough information that a new reader would not be lost.  I like the series for the Irish setting from an Irish point of view.  Carter’s pacing is good; she balances the two mysteries and the personal relationships well, so that the storylines never drag.  I like Ben; she’s level-headed, professional, and competent, and her participation in the mysteries are always related to her profession, so her involvement is plausible.  

Others in the series are:

Death at Whitewater Church

Treacherous Strand

The Wall of Ice

Murder at Greysbridge

The Body Falls

Death Writes

 

Reading of the Green: Irish Writers

 

It’s said that Ireland is a nation of storytellers.  A list of famous writers would include Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Edna O’Brien, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, C.S. Lewis, and George Bernard Shaw, and that’s not including the Irish American writers.  Here are some of our most popular books by Irish authors:

Maeve Binchy was a beloved author known for her stories sent in rural Ireland. She writes warmly about believable characters in situations others can identify with and appreciate.  Tara Road is the story of Ria Lynch, a happily married wife and mother whose world is shattered when she discovers her husband has had an affair and is expecting a child with another woman. Broken-hearted, Ria decides to temporarily trade houses with a woman from America, letting both women discover a new country as well as things about themselves.  Other popular titles include  Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake, and Quentins.

Colm Toibin has recently written a sequel to his 2009 novel Brooklyn. Set in the 1950s, Brooklyn is told from the point of view of Ellis Lacey, a young Irish woman unable to find work.  Learning from a visiting priest that there are jobs in America, Ellis sets off for a strange new land where she does find opportunities but struggles to make a new life while longing for home.  The sequel, Long Island, picks up Ellis’ story twenty years later, and makes her ponder if she made the right choice all those years ago.

Tana French was born in Burlington, Vermont but grew up travelling the world with her parents, including a stay in Ireland. She attended Trinity College and has lived in Dublin for many years with her family.  She writes crime fiction, and her best known series is the Dublin Murder Squad, which follows various detectives as they investigate homicides. Her debut novel, In the Woods, centers around Detective Rob Ryan who is sent to investigate a case involving a child’s death—which turns out to have a connection with a traumatic incident in Rob’s childhood.

John Banville writes in a number of genres, including historical novel on the lives of astronomers such as Copernicus and Kepler.  He has also written crime novels, such as Snow.  Set in 1957, the protestant Detective Inspector St. John Stafford is called to a country house to investigate the murder of a Catholic priest when a storm traps the inhabitants with a murderer on the loose. Banville has also written under the name Benjamin Black.

Niall Williams’ first books were non-fiction, writing with his wife Christine Breen.  While Niall was born in Dublin, he and Christine were living in New York City before deciding to move to rural Ireland to Christine’s grandfather’s 200 year old house. O Come Ye Back to Ireland was a best-seller and inspired several sequels. In his novel Time of the Child, Dr. Jack Troy and his adult daughter Ronnie end up with an abandoned baby. It’s 1962,and for unmarried Ronnie to have an infant is going to cause scandal and gossip.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

London, 1921: Twenty-one year old Opaline Carlisle has just been informed by her brother that he has arranged a marriage for her with someone she has never met.  A spirited girl, she has no intention of being forced into wedlock, so she pretends to agree. Instead, that night she slips away with some books from her late father’s prized collection and escapes to Paris with the intention of becoming a bookseller.

Dublin, the present: Martha is also running away, trying to escape an abusive husband. With no firm plan in mind, she ends up in Dublin and takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for the flamboyant and imperious Madame Bowden. She’s startled one day to find an Englishman pacing beside the house. Henry is an odd young man, a scholar, who claims he is looking for a bookshop that is supposed to be beside the house.  The bookshop was supposed to belong to a renowned bookseller and collector, Opaline Gray.  Martha is a bit skeptical, but there’s something attractive about him.

Henry, for his part, realizes that Martha is perhaps the most intriguing woman that he has ever met. Unfortunately, he also realizes that he has not made the best of impressions.  He’s going to have to find some charm if he is going to learn anything about the bookshop—or the woman.

The book goes back and forth between these three characters, telling us of Opaline’s life as Henry and Martha search for clues—and deal with their own feelings.  They all have secrets, but as we all know secrets have a habit of not staying buried for long.

This is a charming book with beguiling characters who draw you into their stories.  There’s a thread of magical realism running through the book, and not just the mysterious bookshop. Opaline’s story is darker, though, and at times a sad and sobering look at women’s rights in past eras, or rather lack thereof. Overall the book is a beautiful tribute to readers and books, and the transformative power to be found there.  I was invested in all three of the main characters, and anxiously turned pages to discover their fates. There were a number of surprises along the way as well.

One of my favorite parts is when Opaline ends up in Paris where she gets a job at the legendary bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.  In the 1920s, the store was a second home to many great writers, including James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzagerald, all of whom were supported by the store’s owner, Sylvia Beach.  Woods did a lovely job of evoking that era—I wish there had been more chapters!

I am very much looking forward to her next book, The Story Collector, which deals with an Irish farm girl who helps an American translate Irish folk and fairy tales. It’s due out in August, and promises to be just as magical as this book.

The Lost Traveller by Sheila Connolly

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

American Maura Donovan moved to Ireland after inheriting a pub in rural County Cork from a friend of her Irish-born grandmother.  It’s been a bit of a struggle to adjust as well as getting the pub, Sullivan’s,  up and running—the late owner had been an elderly man who didn’t quite keep things up. Maura has kept the local charm while trying to update things a bit, including bringing back live music.

Her efforts seem to be paying off—that is, until the body of a man is found near the pub, his face so battered that identification is impossible.  It seems that the murder is keeping people away in droves, so unless Maura can help the police solve the crime soon, Sullivan’s may be out of business.

I’d read one or two others in this series before I picked this one up, but I had no trouble following the characters. Connolly keeps the reader up to speed with what has gone before in a very organic way that doesn’t feel like a lecture.  While the mystery is slow moving in terms of being solved, the real appeal of this book is the setting and characters.  The book doesn’t feel at all stereotypical, the way that some Irish set mysteries by Americans can be. For example, she keeps the rhythm of the Irish speech without writing in dialect or resorting to the eternal, “That’s not the way we do it in America.”

I also liked the way Connolly handled some of the issues, such as illegal workers, young people leaving for the city, and so forth. She was informative but not judgmental.  The Travellers may also be new to some readers, and an interesting addition to Irish culture.

The mystery is resolved, but as I said before it’s slow moving.  The resolution is in some ways anti-climactic and most of the information comes near the end of the book. Usually, this would cause me to complain but in this book it seemed to fit in with the pace and atmosphere.  I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Sullivan’s and will no doubt return.

Titles in the County Cork Mystery series are:

Buried in a Bog

Scandal in Skibbereen

An Early Wake

A Turn for the Bad

Cruel Winter

Many a Twist

Tied Up with a Bow

The Lost Traveller

Fatal Roots

Treacherous Strand: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

When the body of Marguerite Etienne washes up on a beach in Inishowen, solicitor Ben (Benedicta) O’Keeffe is troubled.  The French woman had come to Ben to make out her will not long before and knew the document had yet to be finalized.  Marguerite was determined to leave everything to her daughter. Unfortunately, the rules of client-solicitor confidentiality still apply so when sergeant Tom Molloy believes that Marguerite died by suicide, Ben can’t reveal the reasons she is certain that the woman was murdered. 

But she is certain.  And she intends to find the evidence to prove it.

This is the second in the Inishowen mysteries, but it can be read as a standalone.  For those like me who are a little sketchy on geography, Inishowen is in County Donegal in the northern part of Ireland and is a part of the Republic of Ireland. Author Carter, herself a solicitor, worked in Inishowen for several years.  All this is to say that she knows the territory well, both the physical location (which sounds lovely and wild) and the ins and outs of working there.  A number of the mysteries I’ve read that use Ireland as a location are written by Americans and while I hope they have done their research, I sometimes question a point or two. In these books I have no doubt that the author knows what she is writing about.

The mystery is well done; the plot is interesting and the reader shares Ben’s frustrations at not being able to reveal what she knows. However, the real appeal for me is the well-developed characters and strong setting.  Ben has a lot of baggage from the past; sometimes she deals with it better than other times.  She’s wary of forming relationships but is drawn to Malloy. Other characters are similarly nuanced.

The setting is well defined and distinctly Irish, all the while avoiding stereotypes. While some Irish expressions and phrasing appear occasionally, it isn’t laid on with a trowel, and the conversations are not written in dialect.

I’m definitely interested in reading more in this series, having enjoyed the first two.  It seems to me that I can see Carter’s confidence as a writer growing between the books, so I have high hopes as we move forward.

The books in the series are:

Murder at Whitewater Church

Treacherous Strand

Well of Ice

Murder at Greysbridge

The Body Falls

Christmas Reading Beyond A Christmas Carol and A Visit From St. Nicholas

 

Appalachian Christmas

Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past by Sharyn McCrumb blends two plotlines of Christmas in the region.  In one, Sheriff Spencer Arrowood has to serve an arrest warrant in one of the “hollers,” while in the other Nora Bonesteel is called on to investigate a haunting. As usual, McCrumb does a wonderful job of capturing the people and places of Northeast Tennessee.

Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree:  A Contemporary Fantasy by local author Jeanne G’Fellers has Centenary Rhodes returning home to try to make peace with her mother.  It may take magic to make that happen.     

Christmas Stories by North Carolina Writers and Twelve Poems, Too edited by Ruth Moose is a wonderful collection of stories, remembrances, and poems including contributions from Lee Smith, Sue Ellen Bridgers, and Kaye Gibbons.  The selections are perfect for that little break in between holiday chores. 

Lee Smith’s Christmas Letters tells the story of a family over three generations through the annual Christmas letter. The story begins in 1944 with Birdie, who is both a new bride and a new mother. She’s living with her in-laws while her husband is overseas fighting the war.  The letters follow Birdie, then her daughter, and finally her granddaughter. Besides getting to know the characters, and then seeing them from a different perspective, the reader also is aware of how times change while some traditions -- like the Christmas letter-- remain the same.

Christmas Fiction

Christmas at the Cat Café by Melissa Daley is a heartwarming tale told through the eyes of Molly, a former stray cat who has found a home with Debbie and her daughter.  Then Debbie’s sister moves in and tensions rise in the family. Not only that, but two of Molly’s kittens go missing. It’s going to take a miracle to make things right again. Even though I am a sucker for cat books, I still was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one.  Part was the setting (UK) and part was having the book told from the cat's viewpoint as she worries about her kittens and about what is happening with her human family as well.

Irish author Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s The Mistletoe Matchmaker celebrates the season with a tale set in the Finfarran Peninsula.  Canadian Cassie decides to visit her grandparents and to see where her father grew up in Ireland. She is soon immersed in the lives of the villagers in this warm and cozy tale of families, friendships, and secrets, filled with memorable characters. It’s the third in a series but can be read as a standalone. 

Luther Krank has decided to skip Christmas. No presents, no tree, nor cards or festive parties.  Instead they’ll go on a cruise and get away from all the madness. Obviously, thing are not going to go as planned. . . John Grisham’s take on the holiday is memorable fun, but don’t take our word for it. Just read Skipping Christmas for yourself. There is also a movie entitled Christmas with the Kranks.  The library has a copy of the DVD.

Even though it's a considered a children's book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson is beloved by adults as well.  Who can forget the Herdmans? Laugh out loud funny, it still gets to the meaning of Christmas in a way few stories do.

Christmas Memories

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor is a short but lovely memoir of a rural Irish Christmas in the 1940s. Alice was one of six children who grew up on a farm.  Her account covers the traditional twelve days of Christmas as her family celebrated, and includes details of rural life. (Don't get too attached to the goslings.  Just sayin'.) 

A Gift from Bob is James Bowen’s account of a difficult Christmas. Bowen was an addict struggling to get clean with the help of his friends and a stray orange tabby cat. It's a sequel to the best-selling book A Street Cat Named Bob.  Two movies were made from the books, A Street Cat Named Bob and A Gift from Bob.  Both books and movies are recommended for being sweet but not saccharine, and for being uplifting.  The library holds both books and movies.

A Foxfire Christmas collects stories of Appalachian holiday traditions, including how to make toys like corn husk dolls, recipes, and party games.  These were collected by students in Georgia and are a charming window into the past.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd is a semi-autobiographical collection of essays about a little boy and his burning desire for a Red Ryder air rifle.  Sound familiar?  It should, because Shepherd’s tales became the basis for the beloved movie.  Originally published in two other collections, the stories were pulled together for this special edition.

 

Christmas Series

A number of authors have regularly turned out Christmas tales which have proven very popular.  The list includes Anne Perry, Richard Paul Evans, Debbie Macomber, Donna VanLiere, Susan Mallory, Janet Dailey, Nancy Thayer, Elin Hilderbrand, “Cape Light” series by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, and Donna Andrews.

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Alice Taylor was one of six children growing up on a farm in County Cork in the 1940s. At the time of this story, she was nine years old, an age when Christmas is still magical and filled with wonder. In this book she relates all the activity surrounding the twelve days of Christmas in a tight-knit community.

The book opens with a local merchant receiving his orders of dried fruit, knowing almost exactly how much each household will want for the Christmas baking. There’s a lot to be done to get ready, and Taylor describes it in vivid and loving detail, from going out to gather the holly to cleaning the chimneys.  There are letters to Santa to be written.  Cards arrive, even some from America. The one from Aunt Kate in New York is a glittery wonder this year, arriving far too early for Mr. Taylor’s taste, but the cheerful Santa gives the children hope that Christmas will indeed come—eventually.  The last to arrive is always the one from Uncle Dan, who left when he was 18 to become a sheep farmer in Oregon.

While Taylor beautifully captures all the excitement and anticipation of Christmas, she doesn’t shy away from the realities.  Those darling little goslings, raised so tenderly by Mr. and Mrs. Goose are destined for holiday tables and their wings will be used as dusters. The children all have to help with the farm chores, and lend a hand to neighbors when needed.

Some of these customs will seem familiar but others are relics of their time, or are family specific. The Taylors always bought new records, for example.  After Christmas Eve dinner, the gramophone is brought out so everyone can hear the new records. This year the favorite tune was “Come Back, Paddy Reilly, to Balljamesduff.” Taylor writes that the song was played constantly “until my father began to regret that his mother had not drowned Paddy Reilly in his baby bathwater….”

I was particularly intrigued by the “Hunting of the Wrens” which took place on December 26.  Thankfully, by this time real wrens weren’t hunted.  Instead, people wear disguises and go from house to house to sing for a reward.

I was charmed by the writing, especially the loving descriptions of cooking and chores.  There’s a bit of low key humor, too.  Their jennet is notorious for biting any unwary human who gets too close—Alice thinks it’s a good thing the jennet was not at the stable or baby Jesus would have been at risk, and the heifers don’t care for being rounded up.  Unpleasant things can happen around unhappy heifers. 

There’s no particular plot to this book, just a warm and wonderfully detailed account of Christmas celebrations of times past. I will admit that there were some things I wish had been explained a bit better (Women’s Christmas, for example, which is mentioned in passing as another name for Little Christmas which is January 6) but overall I just went with the flow.   It’s the perfect book to relax with during a hectic season.

Death of an Irish Mummy by Catie Murphy

Reviewed by Jeanne  

The third entry in the Dublin Driver series has limo driver Megan Malone hired to drive a fellow American around in search of her Irish roots.  Pretty impressive roots too, if Cherise Williams is to be believed: she says she is the heir to an Irish earl.  All she needs to prove it is for the priest to dig up one of the old earls and let Cherise get a DNA sample.

Naturally, this request doesn’t go over well. 

It’s not like Americans laying claim to Irish titles (and castles) is a rare thing. Megan hasn’t lived in Ireland that long, and she’s already seen her fair share.  Most are bogus or at least unsubstantiated, based on family lore and nothing else.  Megan rather assumes this is the case here as well.

However at least one person must believe there’s some truth to it.  Otherwise, why would Cherise end up murdered and her notebook stolen?

I enjoy books set in Ireland, especially when it seems that the author really knows what she’s talking about, and it feels as if Murphy does.  For one thing, her character has really made an effort to fit in and to learn the Irish way of life.  Some of those things come into play in this book, mostly legal differences about firing practices and landlord-tenant disputes, which I found very interesting.

Another thing that sets these stories apart for me is the way that (for the most part) Murphy develops her characters.  Cherise comes across at first as the typical brash and brassy Texan, bent on getting her way. When her daughters come to claim their mother’s body, they seem to conform to standard expectation of squabbling siblings who fit neatly into expected categories.  The author then slowly peels back layers, letting us see these people for who they really are: complex characters who transcend the shallow stereotypes.

I was particularly taken with this entry in the series.  The next may not come out until 2023, but I think it will be worth the wait.

I don’t think you especially need to read them in order, thought there is some character growth during the course of the books.

Titles in the series:

Dead in Dublin

Death on the Green

Death of an Irish Mummy

Death in Irish Accents (2023)

Nevermore: Full Tilt, A Carnival of Snackery, Melungeon Winter, Great Irish Potato Famine

 

Reported by Garry

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy tells the 1963 story of the author taking her bicycle (which she named Roz) on a solitary international journey from Ireland, through Europe, into Afghanistan and Pakistan, ending in New Delhi. Murphy kept a diary, which has been transcribed into this book, recording her interactions with locals, the weather, treacherous mountain roads, and the beauty of the raw landscapes she traveled through. More just a pure travelogue, Murphy has deep insights into the cultures and writes passionately and empathetically about the different peoples that she came across. Our reader loves travelogues, and was nearly overwhelmed by the risky situations in which Murphy found herself. (She did carry a pistol, and actually had to use it a couple of times.) Our reader loved this book and recommends not only this title, but another book by Murphy The Island that Dared - a recounting of her travels in Cuba in 2006 and 2007. CD

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris is a collection of diary entries from 2003-2020. In his inimitable writing style, Sedaris records the quirky, bizarre, and mundane with a sharp eye and even sharper wit. Sedaris speaks at venues worldwide, so this book covers his experiences in France, England, the UK, Japan, and many other locations around the world – all with their own unusual and hilarious customs and mores – which Sedaris weaves into a mesmerizing, riotous series of thoughtful, caustic yarns. Our reader is a fan of Sedaris’ work and highly recommends this latest work by the prolific essayist.  MH

 

A Melungeon Winter by Patrick Bone was a fortuitous find at the recent Friends of the Library Book Sale. Bone is a Tennessee-based author of multiple books including this historical fiction set in the 1950s in the Appalachian Mountains, recounting the story of Jubalee and Robert, two young men (one white, one black) whose friendship runs afoul of the racial tensions of the time. Jubalee’s father is wrongly convicted of murder, and Jubalee and Robert set out to uncover the truth with the help of an assortment of odd characters, including the feared Melungeon hermit, Denny Mullins. Our reader was thrilled with this find that she picked up, and thought this who-dun-it set in the local mountains was a delightful read. She also read and recommends Aliens of Transylvania County by the same author.  KN

 

The Great Irish Potato Famine by James Donnelly is an account of the late 1840s famine which resulted in the death of about one million people and was also largely responsible, in conjunction with British government policies, for one of the greatest international human migrations of British history. Between the years of 1845 and 1855, nearly one million people died, and close to two million (20% – 25% of the entire population) left Ireland, most for North America. This book combines narrative, analysis, historiography, and scores of contemporary illustrations. Our reader found this to be a fascinating, harrowing look at one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in recorded history. KN

Also mentioned:

Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

Every Patient Tells A Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders

Rules for Aging by Roger Rosenblatt

The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal by Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith

Roots by Alex Haley

The African Americans – Many Rivers to Cross by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

The Wrath of Angels by John Connolly

Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Seeking the Swan: A Selection of Winning Entries from the Annual Writing Competition of West Virginia Writes, Inc. 1996 – 2006 (West Virginia Writers Anthology)

Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan

As You Wish:  Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

Auntie Poldi and the Lost Madonna by Mario Giordano

The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

Reviewed by Jeanne

Hannah Casey is not a happy woman.

 She thought she’d left the rural Irish village of her youth far behind when she married Malcolm Turner and moved to London.  Malcolm was a successful barrister, they had a beautiful home that Hannah tastefully decorated, and they had Jazz, the daughter they both adore.

Then came the divorce, and Hannah found herself living in her mother’s back room with Mary Casey’s critical eye on her every move, and “I told you so” hanging over most interactions.  Too proud to take alimony, Hannah has found work as a librarian in nearby Lissbeg to make ends meet, but now with Jazz leaving home, being cooped up with Mary is almost more than Hannah can bear. She needs a place of her own, and she actually has one—a house her Aunt Maggie left her.  The problem is that it’s a ruin, having been left deserted for years.  It needs a lot of fixing up just to become livable, and that’s going to cost money.

It doesn’t help that Hannah doesn’t really have friends.  Angry and humiliated by the end of her marriage, Hannah holds people at arm’s length.  Colin, the book loving young farmer who works part time at the library, is wary of Hannah’s moods but as his mother says, anyone who lives with Mary Casey is entitled to be moody. Still, Colin rather likes Miss Casey so tells local handyman Fury O’Shea that Hannah has a house to fix up.

Which is why there is now a goat at Hannah’s house.

The Library at the End of the World is light but enjoyable book, the first in the Finfarran series. Hayes-McCoy has created a wonderful set of characters, from prickly Hannah to the irascible Fury O’Shea to hypercritical Mary to sweet innocent Colin. She gives every one of them a voice, letting the reader see each from his or her own perspective.  It’s definitely the story of a community, one with which many of us can identify:  the end of the Celtic Tiger economic boom, leaving people in small towns struggling to make ends meet. Young people especially are torn between wanting to stay and the lack of opportunity; and they aren’t being helped by government decisions made far away, with little concern for the people most affected.

There’s humor, frustration, and a bit of wish fulfillment; I don’t think it’s giving anything away to say you can expect a happy ending.  I found it all very satisfying.  However, not all loose ends are tied up neatly, and I wanted to know what happens next.  Good news-- there are four more books in the series.  Bad news—only the second has been published in the U.S. but I have high hopes we’ll be following the adventures of Hannah, Mary, Jazz, Colin, and (I hope!) Fury O’Shea.

Death at Whitewater Church : An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter

Reviewed by Jeanne

Irish solicitor Benedicta O’Keeffe accompanies Paul Doherty on a survey of Whitewater Church, an old and deconsecrated structure that the current owner is hoping to unload.  Crumbling but still impressive, Ben and Paul navigate the church and its environs, examining what they can with an inadequate map and rapidly fading light.  One feature not on the map is the crypt, which they discover by accident—and that there is one body left inside, reduced to skeletal remains.

The garda are called, and the remains are sent to the lab for identification.  Most seem to think that the body was that of Conor Devitt, a young man who went missing some seven years ago, just before his wedding.  It was before Ben had moved to the village of Glendara, but she quickly realizes that almost everyone she knows had some connection to Conor.  Intrigued, Ben tries to figure out the tangled web of lies and love to reveal what really happened seven years ago.

Andrea Carter grew up in Ireland and worked as a solicitor before becoming a barrister and then an author of crime fiction.  I was drawn to the book by the setting, which has a distinct Irish flavor without a “touristy” feel—i.e., she doesn’t try to have the characters speak in dialect or play up stereotypes—but Irish history does come into play, as characters struggle with the downturn in the economy and recall the bitter Troubles.

Ben is a well-developed character who is likeable and honorable, but also intriguing. She is painfully estranged from her parents, dreading to have contact with them though she feels guilty for avoiding them.  She has come to Glendara to escape things in her past which she isn’t ready to share with any of her new friends, not even Sgt. Molloy, the garda with whom she has become close.  The supporting players are also well done:  not a stock character in the bunch. Ben is still learning about most of them, and the discovery of the body serves to reveal much: weaknesses, strengths, and above all, secrets.

The plot was quite well done, and I found myself surprised several times. I enjoyed all the descriptions of the village and the church; the author conveyed the cold and wild beauty of the area, located in County Donegal on the Inishowen peninsula.

I would definitely like to take a return visit to Glendara.