Murder in an Irish Bookshop by Carlene O’Connor | Book Review

Join a bestselling author and travel to County Cork in Ireland to solve a bookish mystery full of twists in a cozy whodunit perfect for fans of Sheila Connolly, Kate Carlisle, and Laura Childs!

Between training the new town garda and trying to set a wedding date with her fiancé, Macdara Flannery, Siobhán O’Sullivan is feeling a bit overwhelmed. She’s looking forward to visiting the new bookshop and curling up with an exciting novel—only to discover the shelves contain nothing but Literature with a capital L. The owner not only refuses to stock romances, mysteries, and science fiction, but won’t even let customers enter his store unless they can quote James Joyce or Sean Hennessey.

Despite the owner deliberately limiting his clientele, he’s hosting a reading and autographing event featuring up and coming Irish writers who will be taking up residency in Kilbane for a month. Among them is indie author Deirdre Walsh, who spends more time complaining about the unfairness of the publishing industry and megastar bestsellers instead of her own creative works, causing a heated debate among the writers. She seems to have a particular distaste for the novels of Nessa Lamb.

Then Deirdre’s body is found the next day in the back of the store—with pages torn from Nessa’s books stuffed in her mouth. Now, Siobhán must uncover which of Kilbane’s literary guests took Deirdre’s criticisms so personally they’d engage in foul play . . .

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a small commission should you purchase using those links. All opinions expressed are my own. I receive no compensation for reviews.

This was my first book by this author and in this series even though it is the seventh book in the series. I found that I had no problem reading it on its own, having not read any of the others. My first book by this author although it is seventh in a series.

I always enjoy books set in Scotland or Ireland so I knew this would be right up my alley. This is a bit of a different cozy mystery in that the detectives are actual police (or garda as they are called) and not a wannabe detective. That was a bit refreshing. Add in that the murder takes place in a bookshop and I am in cozy mystery heaven.

I loved getting to know Siobhán and all of the other characters. The book is so well written and the murders that take place kept me guessing so much. I loved the surprise at the end. I will say there are a lot of characters that we may learn more about in the earlier books. I do plan to go back and read the first six.