Murder at an Irish Castle is the first book of a cozy series by Ellie Brannigan. Released 7th Feb 2023 by Crooked Lane Books, it's 313 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. Library binding format available in June 2023. 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.
This is a simple "clean" cozy mystery which opens in Los Angeles and rapidly shifts scene to Ireland (drawn without an overwhelming abundance of convincing background research, apparently). Protagonist Rayne McGrath goes, on her 30th birthday, from having the world as her oyster to being robbed, financially broke, abandoned by her duplicitous boyfriend, and finagled into attempting to turn the fortunes of her father's family's ancestral manor home by convoluted legal and emotional blackmail which push the boundaries of belief.
Added into the mix are a termagant of a previously undisclosed cousin Ciara, some family retainers, a small village of locals, and a cute Irish setter dog (because of course there would be). The writing is competent and enjoyable, although the constant drama and sniping yanked me out of my suspension of disbelief constantly. I found both Rayne and Ciara annoying in the -extreme- and not at all sympathetic or believable.
There are redeeming moments in the narrative, and background world building can take time. There are promising moments throughout. The setup for future volumes in the series is well rounded and open ended. The dialogue is occasionally rough and the mystery isn't much of a mystery, but overall, it's a fair bet for readers who enjoy undemanding cozy village mysteries.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours and 17 minutes and is narrated by Traci Odom. She has a light voice which has a slightly breathy quality. She does a good job differentiating characters of both sexes and a range of ages. Readers who are intimately familiar with actual Irish accents will possibly find the narrator's portrayal off-putting. After some minutes of adjustment, her voice/accent (she's from Texas, apparently) faded more or less into the background. Sound and production quality were high throughout the read.
Three and a half stars. Worth a look for fans of women's fiction/light cozies.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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