A strong little sleepy village mystery novel. ( )

Yikes. What could have been a solid little mystery was buried under unnecessary fluff. A small Irish town full of dull, terrible, sexually repressed people is jostled by the discovery of some human remains. I could’ve lived my whole life and not had Graham Norton read… things to me. I’ll never be the same. ( )

You will note that this is the second time I have read this novel. My earlier review is here ( I first read it about 3 years ago)

This time I am reading it for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction group. This is the first book we are reading this year, and I think they will enjoy it.

We will be basing some of our discussion on some questions listed at The Reading Agency (listed on Amazon)

Duneen is a quiet place, far enough from the big towns to have kept its own rhythms. Its residents include cast down policeman PJ who lives a lonely, uneventful life punctuated only by the next meal – until now; the beautiful and mysterious family of three spinster sisters each with their own secrets and
sorrows; and of course, the town's gossip who think she knows the answers. When a grim discovery is made on a building site up by the old school, it becomes the catalyst for half lived secrets and seething rivalries to come to light and this silent, once innocent and repressed-seeming town is revealed to have
a much darker, hungrier undertow

The other resources that I've found which we may use in our discussion are some short You Tube videos:

Graham Norton reading an extract
Character introduction : Evelyn Ross

Both of these videos comment on the significance of the novel's title.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.6, HOME STRETCH ( )

Right from the start I was hooked on this book and read it quite quickly despite the busyness of the season. Characters, setting, and of course the unfolding of their lives and their secrets was all very enjoyable. A good first novel. ( )

Not what I would have imagined (good or bad) based on enjoying Norton's show. A funny, insightful story in a charming voice. ( )