Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor is a 2016 Kensington publication.

Siobhán O’Sullivan is left in charge of the family bistro, and her siblings, after the death of her parents in a tragic drunk driving accident. The man responsible is in prison, but now his brother is back in town, and is trying to extort various people in the village-

Including Siobhan- claiming he has evidence that his brother was not, in fact, responsible for the accident that killed her parents. When the man is found dead inside her bistro, evidence points to her brother, James. Determined to save her brother, Siobhan launches her own investigation…

There is always something magical and charming about a small Irish village… well, unless a murder cast suspicion all the residents.

Siobhan, and her adorable family, is going to be a big hit with me. I loved the village, the quirky characters, and the authentic Irish vernacular.

Because this is the first book in the series, some time was spent on introducing the characters and setting the stage for future installments.

While this may have initially slowed the momentum, the mystery stays in the forefront and kept me guessing, with a surprise revelation that I never saw coming.

I had a feeling I would this series and it looks as though my instincts paid off! Looking forward to the next chapter in the series!2021 cozy-mystery e-book95 s Monica (is working the heck out of 229 79

Murder in an Irish Village gets off to a slow start; you’ll need to scale a huge Wall of boring but necessary info dumping and exposition for context’s sake.

In many ways, this is your average cozy in that it obeys many of the conventions of the genre.

1. The town itself is a major character.

2. You’ve got quirky characters you come to , and suspect, nearly as much as the protagonist.

3. You’ve got the requisite simmering attraction between the intrepid protagonist and the watchful, overprotective alpha-cop; I could do without this.

4. You’ve got the family-owned community fixture where the townsfolk go to congrigate and gossip .

5. You’ve got Siobhán O’Sullivan, the selfless protagonist who chokes off her future in the name of family. She is similar to most other cozy mystery heroines in that, but for her illegal, investigatory activities, she's a squeaky-clean emblem of morality; said morality is rooted primarily in her Catholic upbringing.

What distinguishes Murder in an Irish Village from some of the other cozies I’ve tried is the rock solid and nesting doll- mystery, compelling subplots that tie into rather than digress from said mystery, and intense, nail-biting moments that belong in a thriller or horror movie.

I also find the involvement of the younger members of the O’Sullivan six rather cute, if unusual.

More importantly, fearing for their safety, as well as for their adult sister’s, addedan intriguing layer to the book.

I also got to be outraged that they (they’re teens aging from 13 to 16) were suspects, though I’d have probably jumped all over their not being accused.

The other thing I found interesting was the body count. Nearly all of the cozies I’ve read center on a single murder. Again, this plot device isn’t necessarily unique to this particular cozy, but it was a shocking and refreshing aspect I enjoyed.

The audible edition features music designed to enhance the listening experience. I won’t say that all of the music fits every single scene, but I can tell you that the “You did *WHAT* in the act of budding into a police investigation?!” scenes and the intense, horror movie moments were all the more entertaining for the ominous music in the background.

Ultimately, Murder in an Irish Village gets the series off to a great start, and I can’t wait to tear through everything that comes next.stay-up-all-night-reads69 s Jean1,756 765

The setting for the story is Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland. Our protagonist is Siobhan O’Sullivan. Siobhan was about to leave Kilbane to attend university in Dublin when her parents were killed in an auto accident. She is the oldest of six children so she stayed to take care of her siblings. The next oldest is James, but he is an alcoholic. They all work in the family bistro called Naomi’s Bistro. One morning on opening the café they discover a murdered man sitting at a table. James is arrested for the murder and Siobhan is off to solve the crime.

This is a new author and narrator for me. I believe the story is what is being called a cozy murder. The book is well written and most engaging. This is a charming story set in a quaint village that adds charm to the story along with some interesting characters. My only complaint is some information was repeated during the story. A good editor should have cleaned that up.

I read this book as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. It is the narrator, Caroline Lennon, that makes this book such a pleasure to listen too. This is a book that should only be read as an audiobook to fully enjoy the story. Her lilting Irish brogue was a delight to listen too. The book is about ten hours long. I am going to be looking for books narrated by Caroline Lennon; she is a great narrator.
audio-book fiction mystery37 s Ian1,391 186

A man has been murdered and with all the evidence pointing to her brother, it's up to Siobhán to solve the crime.

Well this is really very good.
It's a cozy mystery set in a small Irish town. To be honest, it feels it was written 50 years ago and that's the best thing about it. It's a lot those great BBC crime shows they broadcast on Saturday nights. Not the greatest book ever written but charming and well worth the effort.29 s Melissa ? Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf296 99 Shelved as 'dnf'

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. It didn’t feel a cozy despite the attempt at a charming Irish village. And the pacing was just too slow. The dialogue was awkward and overall it just felt as if the author was trying too hard.reviewed-net-galley28 s Thomas832 190

I thank NetGalley.com and the publisher for sending me this free ebook in return for an honest review. I enjoyed reading this book and give it 3.5 stars out of five. Siobhan O'Sullivan runs the family bistro, serving breakfast and lunch with the help of five siblings. Then her brother James is arrested for murder. This book is set in a small town in County Cork, Ireland. Siobhan sets out to find the real murderer. The author is Irish American, but has done a good job incorporating Irish speech patterns and slang.irish-crime netgalley25 s Chantel420 259

It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on substance abuse, children absented from guardianship, & others.
 
The concept of a cozy mystery that takes place in a small Irish village does, on the surface, translate as something I would be interested in reading. I had spotted this book at random while wandering the book store & thought that it couldn’t hurt to expand my mystery literature; what better way to cultivate some atmosphere than in a quaint Irish village? Unfortunately, none of what I had hoped to encounter in this story came to fruition.
 
We are introduced to a family of six (6) children who are left in charge of running their family’s restaurant after the untimely death of their parents in a freak automobile accident. This alone was tragic & horrible to read about. Within the blink of an eye, this plot point plays second fiddle to the murder plot which seeps itself into the storyline. It wasn’t enough that children had to bear the brunt of adult responsibilities, worries & burdens. A family friend turned serial killer has decided that he needed to pick the children off one by one & murder them to save face. It was too much.

I do not have any desire to read about the overwhelming anxieties of orphaned children trying to find their way in a world that their parents no longer inhabit only for them to have to fight for their actual lives against a grown adult person whom they thought they could trust so that this same person doesn’t kill them.

It would have sufficed for the mystery to have remained the perpetrator of the car accident which took the lives of the parents. Had we been introduced to the family as a full unit we would have had an all-around less dreadful plot to work through.
 
The plot was heavy-duty while not offering much in terms of intrigue or reasons for a reader to complete their reading. Everything felt somewhat superfluous. There is the obvious tragedy that these siblings were living through; the jumble of secondary & tertiary characters whom we do not become acquainted with; a briefly explored scenery; save for the vocabulary & character names this story could truly have been taking place anywhere in the world, there was little tying it to Ireland.

Had the main characters offered anything resembling intelligence or depth, some of my points of contention could be ignored. I found so many of the choices they made, their inner dialogues & the overall essence of these characters to be irredeemably annoying. Tell me what in your mind, as a 22-year-old would prompt you to wander around town trying to solve a very violent murder? Nothing in your character build-up to date had demonstrated you as being anything close to detail-oriented, calm, collected or observant.
 
Perhaps, being someone who lives in North America I have been acclimated to the ‘safer’ way to approach criminal activity (i.e. not to think myself a member of the Scooby-Doo Gang & leave well enough alone for fear of dying myself). Perhaps because these characters lived in such a rural part of Ireland they had no qualms about investigating things themselves, putting themselves in danger & interrupting a police investigation because they had nothing better to do. I can’t say anything for certain, but that whole part intrigued me.

All in all, this is not a book I would count as being memorable, enjoyable or worth the read. There are other quaint mystery books out there that host an array of well-written characters, plots & sceneries.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewirlande mystère suspense22 s Helen3,072 71

I enjoyed this mystery about a small Irish village. The book made it easy for me to visualize the scenes! I d how the author added a name/word Pronunciation and Glossary in the front of the book!animals humor mystery ...more15 s Susan1,062 199

Thanks to Net Galley for letting me read this so I could review it.

3.5 stars

This is a nice cozy mystery read set in the small town of Kilbane in the County Cork of Ireland. Siobhan O'Sulllivan has been having a terrible year. Her parents were killed by a drunk driver and her plans of going to University of Dublin have been put on hold. She has 4 younger siblings and an older brother, James, to take care of. She also runs the family bistro so they have income. She has a full plate.

Then the brother of the man in prison for killing her parents ends up dead in the bistro. James is arrested. Nothing will stop Siobhan until she finds the real murderer and frees her brother. She starts questioning people she's known her life and turns the town upside down.

If cozy mysteries are your thing, then you'll enjoy this little romp.net-galley12 s Anastasia1,762 86

Murder in an Irish Village by carlene O'Connor is the first book in the Irish Village Mystery series. Siobhan O'Sullivan runs her family's cafe with her five siblings after the death of her parents in a car accident. The brother of the convicted drunk driver tries to extort money from Siobhan claiming he had evidence of his brothers innocence and then is found dead in the cafe the next morning. I loved meeting Siobhan and her family and enjoyed this mystery very much. The audio book narrator was terrific and I loved the accent which added to my enjoyment of the story. A nice, charming cozy mystery.audible aussie-crime-lovers-challenge11 s Tim Gordon450 6

When I was looking for a new audiobook for my commute, I chose this book in the hopes of hearing a little lilting Irish brogue. On that note, I was not at all disappointed. The narrator was absolutely fantastic. I could have listened to her read an Irish phone book and been satisfied.

As for the book itself, it was okay. Not amazing by any means but decent.

On the good side, it really seems to capture the small town Irish mentality (as far as I know it, which admittedly is mostly from watching Moone Boy). Things move just a little bit different than what I'm familiar with here or from the many British novels I've read.

The characters, at least most of them, were also pretty decently well rounded. Siobhan was, at least. The author has definitely put a decent amount of time considering who Siobhan is and how she'd interact with the world.

On the not as good side, the pacing wasn't quite right. Not that it was terrible, but there's a bit too long of a stretch in the middle where there's a lot of investigating but not quite enough happening. Siobhan is constantly considering new clues based on the original event (sometimes considering a bit too much, rather than letting the reader consider for themselves), but what it really needed was another twist or new development earlier on. We get one towards the end, but if it had been moved up slightly, it would have gone a long way toward helping the pacing. The ending also drops off a little too quickly, tying up the murder, but leaving us before really resolving how things move with the rest of the town. Maybe that's on purpose. Maybe there will be a sequel, though if more people get killed in that town, it'll have a higher crime rate than a season of Law & Order.

There were also a couple of cringe inducing points. A lot of "Oh Siobhan, you shouldn't be doing that. That's not your place. You're place is in the kitchen," said by multiple people multiple times. Plus she did a few things that were just, well, dumb. The worst was one scene where she and her family accidentally set the drapes on fire at a wake, right next to the dead body. Maybe good for an episode of I Love Lucy, but a bit out of place for a murder mystery.

Still, a pretty decent, if rather typical, murder mystery. Well, except for the fantastic accent. Would definitely recommend the audio book, even if you don't care much for the story.11 s Armelle278

After her parents’ death - they were killed by a drunk driver - Siobhan gave up her chance to go to college in Dublin, instead staying in their small town to take care of her younger siblings, and to keep their family business, a small cafe, running. One year later, the body of a man is found in their cafe and Siobhan’s brother is the main suspect. Siobhan, with the dubious help of her four younger siblings, tries to find the real killer while also trying to avoid their evil landlord, and while trying to decide whether her future includes local policeman Macdara.

I came very, very close to giving up on this one, but, in the end, finished it. Siobhan is the least subtle amateur detective in literary history, and her sisters and brothers are nearly unbearably clueless. She never stops to think about what she’s doing as she runs around her small town questioning everyone she meets. ...and just in case she isn’t obvious enough, her youngest brother is sure to blurt out everything she’s learned to everyone he meets.

There was something about the writing style that I had trouble with at first- it didn’t quite flow- but I mostly got past that. There were a few head scratchers though - if you gave your siblings the day off, why were they all at work when you came back from your errands? And, I might be wrong, but didn’t you say the cafe only did breakfast and lunch, so if it was after lunch, why was the cafe even open? And are Irish men really so short that Siobhan “towers over them” at 5-9?

I didn’t guess who done it, and I thought that part of the plot was good. It was believable and it made sense. I just couldn’t make myself Siobhan and family.

This is probably closer to a 3 than a 2. Honestly, the 2 rating is for my future self, signifying that I probably won’t go looking for more from this series.11 s Rachel Aranda911 2,295

The real rating of this book is between a 2.5 to 2.75. Throughout this book I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a true murder mystery or a cozy murder mystery. I think it's the first one since they had young people in danger and most cozy mysteries I've read haven't done that, but arguments for either could be done.

As a murder mystery the story wasn't as well developed as I would have d but the characters were developed enough to not be boring. In the beginning, I was interested in seeing how this book ended and who was the killer. Sadly the more I read, I found myself becoming less interested in the killer as the book seemed to drag on. It was so easy for me to put this book down for long periods. I even considered putting this book down and starting a new book. All these reasons are why my rating is on the low side. I could see some people enjoying this book but true fans of the mystery genre would be disappointed in this book.

If this story is a murder mystery in it's true sense it's a 2.5 rating. In case this is a cozy mystery, I gave it a second rating. I'm bit more lenient with cozy murder mysteries so that's where my 2.75 rating came from.library-rentals10 s Natalie314 3

3.5 stars

This was a fun, cozy mystery. I loved the Irish slang that is peppered throughout, and don't know enough to know how accurate it is. It certainly helped that I listened to the story. I didn't find myself drawn to the characters as much as I was hoping, but it was a fun story. The heroine seemed quite the town busybody. I'm surprised that people would still give her the time of day. The language was another problem for me. I never did figure out if they were swearing, or just using Irish cant. Not one I'll reread, but I don't feel it was a waste of time.book-nerd-books-201810 s Mallory1,492 208

This was a bit of a slow start but overall an excellent first volume in a cozy mystery series. I d the fictitious but realistic town of Kilbane County Cork. I also the heavy dose of Irish lingo and culture it brought me back to my own all too brief vacation in Ireland. The characters both in the narrator’s family but the whole town were well done and the narrator’s siblings were hilarious. The mystery was interesting and I d the twist with the specific murder weapon. I will definitely be continuing this series. 10 s Constance Maloney119

Geesh - Siobhan is exactly the type of female character in fiction that makes me cringe - hysterical in her reactions, and scatter-brained reasoning. She over-reacts to every single new piece of information that she hears. Trying to follow her erratic thought processes became too taxing for me - I am stopping half-way through the book. Her desire to ignore warnings and run into dangerous situations unbelievable - I could not must any empathy for her actions. did-not-9 s Lauren156 13

An enjoyable comfort read. It was the book version of a hot cup of good tea.mystery9 s ??bee??555 4

NOW THIS IS A COZY MYSTERY. it definitely had some dark and dangerous moments though but the dash of romance served as the perfect side dish to balance it out. when i envision the almost perfect cozy mystery, this is exactly it. THIS WAS SO GOOD OMG and was absolutely hilarious most of the time. this is going down as one of my favorite cozy mysteries.


first of all i love siobhan and deeply sympathized with the situation her and her siblings were in but everything worked out for them in the end and hopefully continues to do so for their other problems. her siblings were so funny too and served as the perfect little detectives alongside her. the narrator was irish and while the accent was a really thick one with irish slang thrown in, it was not very hard to follow. i loved the accent it made everything much more genuine.


the mystery was also very well crafted and i can’t wait to continue the series!!! this is the first youngest amateur detective (flavia from the sweetness at the bottom of the pie doesn’t count because i dnf’ed that book so hard) that i’ve ever read about and i could relate to her and all the responsibilities she had so much. i am praying so hard that the rest of the books in this series are just as good because i just found a new favorite cozy mystery author
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