Murder on an Irish Farm

Finally! In this eighth in series book, Garda Siobhán O'Sullivan and her beloved Detective Sergeant MacDara Flannery are about to tie the knot. Of course those plans are derailed when her brother bursts into the church and announces that he's encountered a dead body in a barn's slurry pit. Yeah, that same barn on the property of the O'Sullivan-Flannery recently purchased marital home. Oh wait, that was supposed to be a surprise wedding gift from MacDara to Siobhán. Oops! So much for that. It turns out that it's the body of someone who was believed to have absconded with €30,000.00 on his own wedding day - the exact same day (but 50 years previously), leaving the bride jilted at the altar. Hmm, amazing coincidence which Siobhán show more doesn't believe for a moment. Well, no wedding bells until Siobhán and MacDara get to the bottom of this mystery and solve two murders and hopefuly avoid getting themselves murdered in the process.

Even though these books can stand on their own, the personal stories which unfold around the various mysteries is well worth reading them in their order. As cozy mysteries go, this is one of the most enjoyable series for its charm, wit and warmth. Although considered a "cozy" mystery, the protagonist is a member of the local constabulary (and not an amateur sleuth) which gives the book an element of believability and a touch more gravitas.

Publisher: ‎ Kensington Books
Publication date:‎ February 22, 2022
Number of Pages: 402
ISBN:‎ 1496730836 show less

Ah! What a delightfully satisfying read! We start with the wedding that wasn’t, end with the wedding that was, and everything between was absolutely wonderful. The mystery was interesting with a plethora of murder suspects for Dara and Siobhan to sort through and not one, but two murders to solve. Are the murders related even though they are fifty years apart? Who knows – you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan and Detective Sergeant Macdara Flannery are at the altar saying their vows when her older brother, James, flies through the door with news of a body having been found – on their new property. They postpone the wedding and the investigation begins and what a twisted mess it is. The body, it show more appears, has been in that pit for years – and that proves to be correct. Now, everybody knows what happened to Tommy Caffrey on his wedding day fifty years earlier. He didn’t skip out on the wedding; he was lying dead in a cow pit. Before Dara and Siobhan can get the first body cleared there is another body. This time it is Alan O’Leary, the man who would have become Tommy’s brother-in-law. Alan’s body was discovered directly on top of Tommy’s bones. Surely the two murders are connected – or are they?

I absolutely love the way Dara and Siobhan work together – their love and support for one another is very special and their complementary skills assure the villains will be caught. When you add in Siobhan’s brood of brothers and sisters, you have an absolutely delightful cast of characters to accompany an equally delightful mystery.

This is the eighth book in the series, and I have read and adored all eight of them. I highly recommend both the book and the series. You could read this as a standalone, but if you want to understand the complete dynamic of all of the relationships, you really need to read all of the books in order. The characters have grown so far and it was such a delight to see that growth happen from book to book.

I highly recommend this well-written mystery filled with delightful support characters and vile villains – and goodness, there are even trained hawks to pique your interest. Happy reading!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own show less

Siobhan O’Sullivan and Macdara Flannery are getting married. James, the brother who is giving her away, is late, but Siobhan decides to proceed with the wedding anyway. He makes a surprise entrance just as the ceremony begins, dirty and disheveled, yelling that he has found a skeleton on the property that Macdara has recently purchased. This indeed does stop the wedding. The guests go on to the reception to enjoy the food while Siobhan and her not-quite husband go off to investigate this cold case. It turns out to be a really cold case, decades old, but then a fresh corpse is added to the situation. It’s an engrossing mystery, drawing in the reader as the detectives go about their investigations. There are twists along the way, and show more false clues to mislead the police. It will take some digging to go back to another wedding 50 years before that also didn’t happen, yet figures prominently in the death. This intricate tale is quite well written, with great characters and a wonderful Irish setting. show less

Sioban and Macdarra's wedding day has arrived and her brother James interrupts the service to announce he's discovered a body. Wedding postponed. They are just the most adorable couple working together to solve the murder as they interrogate the suspects and juggle a family crisis. There are plenty of suspects including a priest, a nun, a game handler, an old married couple, a potter and more. Everyone is lying and it takes lots of interviews before the they figure out who the murder is and the wedding can be rescheduled.

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 show more 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. show less

This is the eighth in the “Irish Village Mystery” cozy mystery series that features Garda Siobhán O'Sullivan and Detective Sergeant Macdara Flannery in the village of Kilbane in County Cork, Ireland.

Just as Siobhán and Macdara are ready to be married - standing in front of the priest even - Siobhán’s brother James comes racing into the church to announce he has just found a dead body in the slurry pit at the farmhouse. James was cleaning it up to ready it for Macdara’s surprise for Siobhán - he bought it for them as a wedding gift. Needless to say, the wedding had to be postponed, and the gardas began investigating.

There was only a small circle of suspects for the killing of Tommy Caffrey, who disappeared exactly fifty years show more earlier on the day of his supposed wedding to Gladys Burns. Gladys, now married to Benji Burns for these past fifty years, are the closest neighbors to the farm.

Thirty thousand quid disappeared along with Tommy, and it was assumed that Tommy just took the money and ran. But he apparently didn’t run very far, and the money was not in the slurry pit along with his body.

Siobhán, Macdara, and their newest partner, Garda Aretta Dabiri interview the small pool of possible suspects, complicated by the fact that a second body soon turns up on top of the first.

As the secrets and lies of the past come tumbling out, albeit gradually, it becomes clear who the actual killer is, but not before the gardas themselves are in life-threatening danger.

Evaluation: I had not read any of the previous books in the series, but had no trouble figuring out who everyone was and what were the relationships among them. This was a pleasing story, with an endearing set of characters, although I thought the author went a bit overboard in what seemed like efforts to appeal to a sentimental fondness for all things and stereotypes Irish. show less

I've inadvertently jumped a number of titles in this series but I only realised that when I've come to write the review. Not that I think it matters much in this case.

These novels appear to be cosies, with lots of action happening all at once, and a cast of at least dozens, and a puzzle or two to be solved.

I am enjoying them, so I shall persist.