No Strangers Here by Carlene O’Connor – #AudiobookReview – #ReadingIrelandMonth24

County Kerry Mystery #1

Book Blurb:

Set in Ireland’s striking, rugged countryside, USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor’s dark, atmospheric new crime fiction series combines the eerie atmosphere of Tana French and Louise Penny with the compulsively taut plotting of Dervla McTiernan and Lucy Foley, as an Irish veterinarian grapples with life, death, family dynamics, and the secrets at the heart of her small community…

On a rocky beach in the southwest of Ireland, the body of Jimmy O’Reilly, sixty-nine years old and dressed in a suit and his dancing shoes, is propped on a boulder, staring sightlessly out to sea. A cryptic message is spelled out next to the body with sixty-nine polished black stones and a discarded vial of deadly veterinarian medication lies nearby. Jimmy was a wealthy racehorse owner, known far and wide as The Dancing Man. In a town like Dingle, everyone knows a little something about everyone else. But dig a bit deeper, and there’s always much more to find. And when Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien is dispatched out of Killarney to lead the murder inquiry, he’s determined to unearth every last buried secret.

Dimpna Wilde hasn’t been home in years. As picturesque as Dingle may be for tourists in search of their roots and the perfect jumper, to her it means family drama and personal complications. In fairness, Dublin hasn’t worked out quite as she hoped either. Faced with a triple bombshell—her mother rumored to be in a relationship with Jimmy, her father’s dementia is escalating, and her brother is avoiding her calls—Dimpna moves back to clear her family of suspicion.

Despite plenty of other suspects, the guards are crawling over the Wildes. But the horse business can be a brutal one, and as Dimpna becomes more involved with her old acquaintances and haunts, the depth of lingering grudges becomes clear. Theft, extortion, jealousy and greed. As Dimpna takes over the family practice, she’s in a race with the detective inspector to uncover the dark, twisting truth, no matter how close to home it strikes…

 My Review:

Oh good grief. You can’t say I’m not consistent. An author I’ve read many times, her cozy mysteries, an apparently gave one to the CE to read in June 2022.

This one.

No Strangers Here launches a series in which the author leaves her cozy mysteries and turns out a much darker story. And you can believe that the author can spin some pretty interesting tales!

Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien is back to lead the investigation into the murder of Jimmy O’Reilly in Dingle. Dr. Dimpna Wilde has returned to Dingle and the veterinarian quickly finds herself embroiled in the apparent murder owing to a possible connection to her family. Her father, also a veterinarian with a long-held practice is showing strong signs of dementia.

Wealthy racehorse owner Jimmy O’Reilly had quite the reputation for himself. He was quite the dapper dancer and the ladies loved it. Including Dimpna’s mother?

Along with a bird’s eye view of the beautiful tourist-drawing countryside and a well-rounded cadre of support characters, the narrative’s undercurrent reveals twists as the storyline progresses through each lead.

I reviewed Book 2 of the series, Some of Us Are Looking and really enjoyed it but I can’t find a Book 3 for this series. I found Book 1 to be a bit slower than the second, but as the start of a series, that’s not unusual. Dimpna has her problems, of course she does, but I found the novel about the Irish animal doctor engaging and either installment could be read as a standalone.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

 

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Women Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0B8R282TK
Listening Length: 12 hrs 26 mins
Narrator: Emily O’Mahony
Publication Date: October 25, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: No Strangers Here [Amazon]

 

 

The Author: USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor comes from a long line of Irish storytellers. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland to America and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places across the pond she’s wandered, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork. She writes the bestselling IRISH VILLAGE MYSTERIES, the HOME TO IRELAND series, and the new COUNTY KERRY MYSTERIES. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, and optioned for television.

Readers can find her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086525205106 or through her website: http://www.carleneoconnor.net

©2024 V Williams