Closer than you think: A Mags Munroe Story by Jean Grainger

Book Blurb:

Mags Munroe is juggling a lot. A Gen Z new Garda recruit who lectures everyone on political correctness, teenage daughters who are determined to fill the house with unruly animals, a mother-in-law that is not improving with age, and a husband with a loud new hobby.

So, when an eccentric old couple move to Ballycarrick, claiming to be a witch and a warlock, she thinks why not? What harm could they do? But their presence is fascinating some and infuriating others, and both sides want her involved.

Her husband’s old girlfriend is back in town, and the rumour mill starts turning, and relationships Mags has relied on all her life seem suddenly precarious.

Just when she’s at boiling point, she finds herself faced with a professional situation so unlikely it’s almost laughable, but as things unfold, what seemed like a joke is no longer funny, as sinister influences take a keen interest in Ballycarrick, but why?

My Review:

There’s always a lot going on in the little village of Ballycarrick, Cork, Ireland. Mags Munroe, the Garda Chief and her husband Kieran must juggle not only the local station and a new recruit, but keep a guarded eye over her own daughters, the local townspeople, and his ex.

The author has that special blarney gift for spinning tales and this series is particularly endearing with the description of the countryside, its people (which includes a population of Travellers), an ex of Kieran’s, and on a more serious note possible espionage.

Also in this installment is the unusual introduction of a witch and warlock, rapidly disconcerting to the Travellers as fakes. Although some of the locals are smitten, Mags remains skeptical and consults her favorite Traveller guide for insight.

Easy to engage in a Mags Munroe, never a dull moment, and I love the kind and compassionate way she deals with people. Mags never shies away from following the leads where they take her—which has gotten her in a lot of trouble before and does so again.

These are generally fast, easy, and fun reads. Her family quickly become familiar friends and the plots are generally more complex than would seem on the surface. Usually satisfied in the conclusion, each can be read as a standalone, but as this is Book 4 of this series you may wish to start back at Book 1.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

 

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Saga Fiction, Family Saga Fiction
ASIN: B0CPH2HBGW
Print Length: 274 pages
Publication Date: April 24, 2024
Source: Author

Title Link(s):

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The Author: JEAN GRAINGER USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

SELECTED BY BOOKBUB READERS IN TOP 19 OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS

WINNER OF THE 2016 AUTHOR’S CIRCLE HISTORICAL NOVEL OF EXCELLENCE

‘Warm and wise, reading a Jean Grainger novel is like sitting in the kitchen of a friend. Her authentic writing welcomes you into the heart of Ireland.’ Kate Kerrigan, NYT Bestselling Author.

‘In the same magical tradition as classic Irish storytellers, Maeve Binchy and Frank McCourt, Jean Grainger transports the reader into a world where the characters not only come alive, but become friends, who stay with you long after you’ve closed the last page. I have no doubt that Jean Grainger will be considered one of the finest historical novelists of our time.’ Roberta Kagan, Bestselling author of ‘All My Love, Detrick’ series.

Hello and thanks for taking time out to check out my page. If you’re wondering what you’re getting with my books, then think of the late great Maeve Binchy but sometimes with an historical twist. I was born in Cork, Ireland in 1971 and I come from a large family of storytellers, so much so that we had to have ‘The Talking Spoon’, only the person holding the spoon could talk!

I have worked as a history lecturer at University, a teacher of English, History and Drama in secondary school, a playwright, and a tour guide of my beloved Ireland. I am married to the lovely Diarmuid and we have four children. We live in a 200 year old stone cottage in Mid-Cork with my family and the world’s smallest dogs, called Scrappy and Scoobi..

My experiences leading groups, mainly from the United States, led me to write my first novel, ‘The Tour’. My observances of the often funny, sometimes sad but always interesting events on tours fascinated me. People really did confide the most extraordinary things, the safety of strangers I suppose. It’s a fictional story set on a tour bus but many of the characters are based on people I met over the years. Little was I to know that it would end up as a six-book series.

My first World War 2 novel, ‘So Much Owed’ is a family saga based in Ireland following the Buckley family of Dunderrig House. The story opens in the trenches of WW1 at the end of the war and moves to tranquil West Cork. As the next generation of the Buckley family find themselves embroiled once again in war, the action moves from Ireland to wartime Belfast, from occupied France to the inner sanctum of German society in neutral Dublin. The history of the period was my academic specialty so I’m delighted to be able to use it in a work of fiction.

Shadow of a Century is set in New York in 2015 as well as in Dublin during the events of Easter Week 1916, where Irish men and women fought valiantly to rid our island of British imperialism. While not my academic specialty, I loved researching this book. It’s essentially a love story, but with a bit of intrigue thrown in for good measure.

Under Heaven’s Shining Stars was published in 2016 and is set in my home city of Cork. This time it’s against the backdrop of 1950s and 60s Ireland and it really is a book about friendship, family and the Catholic church. I have a deep personal affinity with all of my characters but this book is especially close to my heart.

A book I wrote while travelling with my family for a year in Australia is called Sisters of the Southern Cross, and don’t forget to read the afterword on that one as to how that story came about – it’s a tale stranger than fiction in its own right!

I wrote a novel called Letters of Freedom after hearing a woman on the radio one day explaining how being raised in state care prepared a person so poorly for the realities of independent living. Her story was so moving I was inspired to write a short novella there and then.

Carmel’s story really seemed to touch people, and I got such a huge reaction from readers all over the world, many of them telling me the most extraordinary stories from their own lives, that I wrote a sequel. The Future’s Not Ours To See follows Carmel as she ventures forth into a world she knows so little of is. The third Carmel and Sharif book, What Will be, is also available and it finishes the story of this woman who spent her entire childhood believing something that wasn’t true. She returns to Ireland, very reluctantly and discovers that in order to go forward she has to first make peace with her past.

My next series, The Robinswood Story, opens with What Once Was True, and tells the story of a big old house in Co Waterford during WW2. Two families live there, the impoverished Keneficks who own it and the hard-working Murphys who work for them. The sequel to this, Return to Robinswood, continues the story, and the final instalment, Trials and Tribulations, takes it to its conclusion.

The Star and the Shamrock, the Emerald Horizon, The Hard Way Home and The World Starts Anew is a series of four books about two little German Jewish children who find themselves on the Kindertransport out of Berlin. They end up in Northern Ireland, and it was a real labour of love. The research was harrowing at times, but I hope I’ve done justice to the stories of so many children who escaped the Nazi terror, often never again to see their parents. This is a book of hope in dark times, of the enduring power of love and the incredible resilience of the human spirit.

Another series, The Queenstown Series, centres on twelve year old Harp Devereaux and her mother Rose, and the first book, Last Port of Call, opens on the day Titanic sails from Queenstown, Co Cork on her last fateful journey. It is a bestselling series and people really seem to connect to the precocious Harp and her hard-working mother as they battle to survive in a society where conforming and playing by the rules was paramount. It is a four-book series, The West’s Awake, The Harp and the Rose and Roaring Liberty completing the set.

Many of the people who have reviewed my books have said that you get to know the characters and really become attached to them. That’s wonderful for me to hear because that’s how I feel about them too. I grew up on Maeve Binchy and Deirdre Purcell and I aspired to being like them. If you buy one of my books, I’m very grateful and I really hope you enjoy it. If you do, or even if you don’t, please take the time to post a review. Writing is a source of constant contentment to me and I am so fortunate to have the time and the inclination to do it, but to read a review written by a reader really does make my day.

©2024 V Williams