Murder on an Irish Farm is the 8th Irish Village cozy mystery by Carlene O'Connor. Released 22nd Feb 2022 by Kensington, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is such a well written and engaging mystery, set in Ireland. Despite being the 8th book in the series, I had no trouble at all following the story or keeping the characters straight. It works very well as a standalone and it's written well enough that I'm inclined to seek out the earlier books whilst waiting for the next installment.
The book opens dramatically enough with one of the MC's brothers, who should be the best man in her wedding bursting into the church, already late for the actual nuptials, exclaiming that he's found a (long dead) body in a slurry pit on a dairy farm. The MC and her fiance are both law enforcement, detective sergeant (him) and garda officer (her). The plot revolves around the unraveling of the cold case disappearance/murder from 50 years ago, alongside the modern crimes which occur as fallout.
A strong subplot element has to do with falconry and birds of prey and I found those aspects really fascinating. The author is either involved with rehab/birds of prey or has really good research resources. Either way, it's fascinating to read and added a lot of atmosphere.
Although the author is apparently American, the dialogue, spelling, and vernacular are Irish standard (torch, lorry, crisps, chipper (note, not chippy)). It shouldn't present any problems in context for readers outside the UK/Ireland.
Four and a half stars. Entertaining and well written. A diverting read for fans of the genre.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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