An engaging cozy, focussing on Siobhán O’Sullivan's first case as a Garda.

The local priest wakes her after he hears a gunshot in his local churchyard. He follows that by finding the body of an American tourist. This case is really above Siobhán's pay grade and a garda from Dublin is brought in to work with her.

Set in the small village of Kilbane, the case is an interesting mix of current police procedural and historical investigation. The American is the head of a successful food chain who has come to Ireland to search his past. He has brought with him his current (3rd) wife, his brother, a nurse, and his two adult children, and a documentary maker who will film their journey.

In addition Siobhán O’Sullivan has a restaurant to run and personal problems to resolve.

I have already begun another series by this author (see below) ( )

For me the test of a good mystery is if it hits a point where I can’t put it down until I know who did it and the solution is a complete surprise. This is a good mystery. It takes place two years after the previous book in the series, giving main character Siobhan O'Sullivan just enough time to finish Garda College. As her Irish luck would have it, she gets to put her new degree to work her first day on the job. One of her neighbors isn’t happy about it. “Murder follows you around,” he said, pointing a bony finger at her. “You’re making this town into some kind of spectacle.” I expect he’ll have to get used to it. ( )

Jumped right back into the lives of the O'Sullivan's! This one seemed to start off faster for me and I am excited about the ending and the next one! I think they need to find another snack other than curried chips...or maybe I need to try them. ( )

Siobhan is now a garda, but this story still has a cozy mystery feel about it. So much revolves around Siobhan and her relationships with her siblings as well as her relationship with Macdara Flannery that it is more about that than it is about actual police procedures. And really, Siobhan relies more on her intuition than anything else. In this story, an American tourist is found dead in the churchyard. He and his family are filming a documentary, and he is looking for his Irish roots. Alas, Americans don’t come off very well: the family is always bickering and seem to be more worried about what they will inherit than about the father’s death. It’s still an interesting mystery, but even more interesting are the discussions between Siobhan and Macdara when they finally clear the air and resolve their differences. ( )

After two years at college, Siobhan is now officially an officer in the Irish police force. Her first day of work starts off with a bang when an elderly man is found murdered in a graveyard. Turns out the victim -- as well as numerous members of his family also visiting the area -- is an American trying to learn more about his Irish ancestors for a documentary.

This book was a little better than the second in the series but not as good as the first. It makes sense once again for Siobhan to be investigating the case now that it's her job to do so, but I once again guessed who the murderer was long before the investigators did. However, there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting and make me wonder about motivations and other possible suspects. This novel seemed to focus more on the tense romantic relationship between Siobhan and Macdara, which is fine except that it was at the expense of seeing more of Siobhan's siblings.

Still, all in all, this was a good read for some light escapism with a relatively tame murder mystery. I will continue on with the next in the series and see how it goes. ( )