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dollycas's review against another edition
5.0
Dollycas’s Thoughts
What happens when it snows in Ireland? Like Maura I had not really thought about it but Sheila Connolly gives us and Maura just a little taste of the Irish lands covered in snow.
The snow is falling and friends and strangers are gathering at Sullivan’s Pub to wait out the storm. They have plenty of ale and fuel for the fire. Food is a little sparse but with a little creativity from Rose she stretches what she has enough to feed everyone. One of the strangers is Diane Caldwell, like Maura she had family that lived in the area, but she hasn’t been back to Leap in years. The local authorities had her pegged as the prime suspect in the murder of another young woman several years ago but never has enough evidence to make an arrest. Most of locals recognized her immediately. So because of the snow storm she has a captive audience. Could there be a better time to tell her side of the story? Heck, her listeners may even be able to shed light on something that had been missed all those years ago.
At first I thought this was going to be a closed room type mystery where the real guilty party just happened to be in the room too, but Ms. Connolly gives the story a nice twist showing fresh sets of eyes and ears can uncover new clues on an old cold case. She lets Diane tell her story and Maura and the other patrons ask questions and test out theories trying to find some way to prove Diane really is innocent and maybe give the garda a new lead on this old crime.
The characters in this story are so rich. I love Maura, but I really love Billy. He is an elderly man that basically holds court in the pub each day telling stories. This time his knowledge of the history and the land in the area help Maura and the others to keep pushing forward with new ideas. The author has set the scene so well in all the books in this series it is so easy to picture him in his overstuffed chair in front of the fire regaling everyone with his thoughts about the case.
Connolly also describes the rest of the pub, including the basement, in such detail readers are given a bird’s eye seat for the whole story. Even the snow falling outside and the drafts around the windows are easy to see and feel. They were so real I found myself pulling a blanket around my shoulders to keep away the cold.
In addition to the main plot, Gillian has some changes coming in her life and she is getting near to having her baby. Jimmy has a new woman in his life and Rose is growing up so fast.
I have enjoyed every book this author has written and this one is no different. I am so glad Maura decided to stay in County Cork. That little bit of the Irish in me anxiously awaits for each trip to Sullivan’s where Maura pours me a pint and I can sit and relax among friends.
Thank you Sheila for another wonderful escape!
What happens when it snows in Ireland? Like Maura I had not really thought about it but Sheila Connolly gives us and Maura just a little taste of the Irish lands covered in snow.
The snow is falling and friends and strangers are gathering at Sullivan’s Pub to wait out the storm. They have plenty of ale and fuel for the fire. Food is a little sparse but with a little creativity from Rose she stretches what she has enough to feed everyone. One of the strangers is Diane Caldwell, like Maura she had family that lived in the area, but she hasn’t been back to Leap in years. The local authorities had her pegged as the prime suspect in the murder of another young woman several years ago but never has enough evidence to make an arrest. Most of locals recognized her immediately. So because of the snow storm she has a captive audience. Could there be a better time to tell her side of the story? Heck, her listeners may even be able to shed light on something that had been missed all those years ago.
At first I thought this was going to be a closed room type mystery where the real guilty party just happened to be in the room too, but Ms. Connolly gives the story a nice twist showing fresh sets of eyes and ears can uncover new clues on an old cold case. She lets Diane tell her story and Maura and the other patrons ask questions and test out theories trying to find some way to prove Diane really is innocent and maybe give the garda a new lead on this old crime.
The characters in this story are so rich. I love Maura, but I really love Billy. He is an elderly man that basically holds court in the pub each day telling stories. This time his knowledge of the history and the land in the area help Maura and the others to keep pushing forward with new ideas. The author has set the scene so well in all the books in this series it is so easy to picture him in his overstuffed chair in front of the fire regaling everyone with his thoughts about the case.
Connolly also describes the rest of the pub, including the basement, in such detail readers are given a bird’s eye seat for the whole story. Even the snow falling outside and the drafts around the windows are easy to see and feel. They were so real I found myself pulling a blanket around my shoulders to keep away the cold.
In addition to the main plot, Gillian has some changes coming in her life and she is getting near to having her baby. Jimmy has a new woman in his life and Rose is growing up so fast.
I have enjoyed every book this author has written and this one is no different. I am so glad Maura decided to stay in County Cork. That little bit of the Irish in me anxiously awaits for each trip to Sullivan’s where Maura pours me a pint and I can sit and relax among friends.
Thank you Sheila for another wonderful escape!
____emily____'s review against another edition
2.0
So repetitive..... not only did the main character constantly have the same internal monologue and conversations with others, but the mystery wasn’t even introduced until over a third of the way into the book. The first third of the book was devoted to the mundane process of planning for a snow storm (and having the same conversations about it with multiple people, which is likely how life works, but most authors shorten the boring bits for the readers). I was so glad to finally be done with it by the end. I only read it to the end so I could find out the solution to the mystery, but even that was anticlimactic. Don’t even bother picking this one up
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