Barbara’s rating: 4.3 out of 5 Stars
Series: Irish Village Mystery #11
Publication Date: 2/25/25
Period: Contemporary Ireland
Number of Pages: 304
Siobhan O’Sullivan is NOT in a good place at the beginning of this book. She’s studying for her Detective Seargent exam; she is having a big spat with her husband, Macdara; the five siblings she’s raised since their parents’ deaths are growing up and leaving home; and she doesn’t feel well. She doesn’t need a murder to investigate on top of all that, but that is what she gets.
Kilbane’s Top Garden Contest is going strong with the five contestants busily preparing their plots beneath concealing tents. The contestants are all very competitive, very secretive, and very diverse in the gardens they are preparing and everyone is excited to see who the winner will be once the gardens are revealed and judged. Siobhan is excited to receive a VIP ticket to accompany the judge to each reveal. Then, maybe she’s not so excited when strange events start at the first garden and continue through the rest – right up to a dead body.
We have suspects of every variety and it is up to Siobhan and Macdara to untangle the twisted clues. They keep circling and circling until one suspect stands out amongst the rest. Is that suspect for real or are they being set up? If not them, who? Everyone seems innocent – and everyone seems guilty – yet it can’t be both ways. I enjoyed this mystery and though I had a suspicion about the perpetrator, I wasn’t sure until the very end. I did think bits of it were far-fetched, but it didn’t detract from my interest in the mystery itself.
I did not enjoy the conflict between Siobhan and Macdara because it seemed very childish on her part. I would have expected a higher maturity level than she displayed with all she has gone through – especially in raising her 5 siblings. To me, it was just a very silly thing to go off the deep end about. I assumed that was to display her current emotional state with all that was happening, so I let it slide. Another thing I didn’t enjoy was the book blurb’s first paragraph where it says Eoin hires a landscape designer so he can participate in the contest and generate business for his new restaurant. He did not it is plain as you read, so I fail to see why that is intimated in the blurb. None of that kept me from enjoying the story – it just nipped at my attention. Also missing is the ‘glossary’ of pronunciations included in some of the previous books. I loved that, but maybe most didn’t. I love those beautiful Irish names and hated butchering them before I found the glossary.
The final chapter in the book is one of the sweetest and most heartwarming I have ever read. I loved it! As a matter of fact, it was so heartwarming that it scared me for a bit because I kept thinking – ‘Is this the last book in the series?’. I cannot find anything that tells me that is the case and with all of the changes and growth that has happened with the characters – ALL of the characters – I can see several ways the series can continue with new and invigorated stories. Or, it can continue right along as it has been and I’ll be perfectly happy.
I voluntarily read an early copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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