Jessica Fletcher is quick to accept an invitation to replace a speaker who couldn’t attend a Book Festival in Belfast, Ireland. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O’Bannon hears about the trip, she asks Jessica to deliver some paintings to her family in the village of Bushmills. Happy to extend her travels and see more of the Irish countryside, Jessica agrees.
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The festival goes off without a hitch, and it seems like Jessica is in for a relaxing vacation. But then Maeve’s cousin Michael is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. Jessica finds herself once again in the midst of a murder investigation, and she’ll have to dig into the O’Bannon family’s secrets to unmask the killer.Â
Release Date: Jan 3, 2023
Series:Â Murder She Wrote
Book:Â 56
Publisher:Â Penguin Group
Imprint:Â BerkleyÂ
Price: $14.99
Jessica Fletcher agrees to travel from her home in Cabot Cove, Maine to Belfast, Northern Ireland, as a favor to her friend and fellow author, Lorna Winters. Lorna is laid up in a cast and has been advised not to travel, so Jessica agrees to attend the Belfast Book Festival to accept an award and participate in a discussion panel on Lorna’s behalf. Jessica also tells her neighbor Maeve O’Bannon that she will deliver some family heirloom paintings to Maeve’s Irish relatives while on her trip and enjoy a little leisure time. Jessica meets one of Maeve’s cousins at the book festival before meeting the rest of the family in the neighboring village of Bushmills. When Michael is murdered, Jessica’s relaxing vacation is over, and it’s time for her to put her sleuthing skills to use to solve the case.
Death on the Emerald Isle is almost like two stories in one. The portion set at the book festival is really interesting, and the author helped you to really visualize what it would be like to attend such an event. The festival helps set the stage for the “main event” when the story moves from Belfast to Bushmills and a killer strikes. Even though Jessica’s Cabot Cove friends and neighbors play only a limited role in the story, I like the change of pace of having Jessica on the road. The Irish setting is well-done, and I especially liked the part of the book taking place at the book festival, even though the murder doesn’t occur until later in the book. I like the character of Godfrey Hamilton, who is assigned as Jessica’s escort at the festival to help her navigate the various commitments and personalities she has to deal with.
Once Jessica travels to Bushmills, the pace of the book slows somewhat, even though this is when the investigation gets started. There are portions of the story in which Jessica doesn’t seem to make much progress as she tries to get the truth from the O’Bannon family. Jessica teams up with a young woman named Maggie, who helps with the investigation. I appreciate Maggie’s enthusiasm, but she is a little too eager and continually jumps to conclusions which becomes annoying. Jessica is as likable as ever – smart, humble, and willing to help her new friends. The author keeps you guessing as to the identity of the killer. I like the way things wrap up at the end of the investigation, and the very end of the book after Jessica returns home. You don’t have to have followed the television series to enjoy this fun, cozy series, and especially this book, since most of it takes place away from most of the recurring characters from Cabot Cove.
~ Christine
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