Book Review | Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant (Beacon Bakeshop series #4) by Darci Hannah | CONTAINS SPOILERS
October 20, 2023
Book Review | ARC Review | Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew | CONTAINS SPOILERS
October 21, 2023
Murder in an Irish Churchyard
My Rating:
After joining the police force of her small Irish village, a local woman must investigate the murder of a stranger in this cozy mystery novel.
After solving two murders in the County Cork village of Kilbane, Siobhán O’Sullivan has accepted her calling and decided to join the Garda Síochána. The O’Sullivan clan couldn’t be prouder, but there’s no time to celebrate as she’s already on another case, summoned by the local priest who just found a dead man in the St. Mary’s graveyard—aboveground.
He’s a stranger, but the priest has heard talk of an American tourist in town, searching for his Irish ancestor. As Siobhán begins to dig for a motive among the gnarled roots of the victim’s family tree, she will need to stay two steps ahead of the killer or end up with more than one foot in the grave.
Trigger Warnings:
Murder, death of parents (continuation of previous book)
Characters
The O’Sullivan Six:
- Siobhan
- James
- Eoin
- Grainne
- Ann
- Ciaran
Other Characters:
- Madara Flannery – the guard that broke the news of her parents death, her ex-boyfriend
- Bridie – good family friend, helps in the Bistro
- Annamarie – owns a shop in town after her sister’s death in the previous book
- Jeanie Brady – state pathologist
- Father Kearney – local church
- Gaurda O’Reilly and Sergeant O’Brien – local Garda, do not treat Siobhan well
- Elise – James’ new girlfirend
- George Dunne – old man in town, calls about lost socks and other random crimes
The Americans:
- Tracy Mallon – daughter
- Hannah – the hired nurse
- Peter – murder victim, was in Ireland doing research on his family tree
- Brandon, son
- Greta – Peter’s third wife
- Frank – Peter’s brother
- Jay – filming the family for a documentary on their family tree
My Review
When I started reading, I thought I had missed a book between this one and the last one. While I love this series and liked the book, it did seem to go on a little long. Siobhan is an actual guard now so has the right to question people and investigate! She struggles with following the rules she is passed form her leaders, but most of the time it seems justified. I appreciate the fact she is a guard because it feels like the book can now have a lot more mysteries that make sense to be investigating instead of just bad luck for the main character to keep attracting murder.
It’s fun to grow up with the siblings of the family, even though they weren’t a focus of this installment. It also teased my senses for Christmas with mentions of snow falls and schools getting cancelled. While this is cozy mystery series, it feels like it isn’t as cozy as some of them. I appreciate the complex-ish plot, even if it felt busy at times.
I’ve heard good things about the audiobooks for this series, but my library doesn’t carry them.
I’ll be reading the next books in this series!
Spoilers/Summary
George’s lost socks were found at the historical society in a donation box but then disappear again. Peter was murdered by a revolver that was stolen from the historical society – thought to be smuggled out by George’s lost socks.
Hannah is not actually a nurse, Peter had hired her to annoy Tracy.
George is the murderer. He was blackmailing the Mallon’s of the US about their family history. Frank intersects the blackmail requests and pays them. Peter finds out and decides to right the wrong and pays Jay instead to create the documentary to expose the lies. George freaks out because he doesn’t want his family laundry aired so ends up killing Peter. He dresses up as a woman to steal the gun from the history center.
Macdara decides to move home, they confess they still love each other!
The family history:
Michael and John Mallon were brothers – the great great grandfathers of the current Mallons.
John and his wife Ann were setting of to the US with Michael in tow. Michael was drinking a lot. He gets in a fight with John and pushes him overboard and they assume he dies. Michael pretends to be John the rest of his life and acts as Ann’s husband. They end up becoming rich in the US with successful restaurants.
It turns out that John didn’t actually fall overboard. He caught a porthole and pulled himself back up but then saw his wife with his brother and decided to go back to Ireland. He gets married again, has a child and then George is born to that child.