It’s almost time for the delicious warmth of Irish soda bread, but be careful where you bite–some of these recipes call for murder in this delicious collection of cozy mystery novellas featuring the popular St. Paddy’s Day treat.
IRISH SODA BREAD MURDER by CARLENE O’CONNOR
There’s very little time left before her wedding, but nonetheless Tara Meehan is helping out at her Uncle Johnny’s salvage yard for the day. Aunt Rose set up a convention for local psychics, including a bake sale to raise money for charity, but now she’s sick and available only via an iPad Johnny is carrying. The event promises to deliver a real pot of gold until Rose’s biggest rival shows up. Before Tara can utter a simple “top o’ the morning” to the man, he drops dead—with Johnny’s soda bread in his hands. It’s up to Tara to identify the deadly baker before another victim ends up chasing the rainbow straight into a grave . . .
AN IRISH RECIPE FOR MURDER by PEGGY EHRHART
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, the Arborville, New Jersey, Advocate is sponsoring a soda bread–baking competition. Bettina Fraser is excited—her bake-off idea was the one to get the green light! But when a town councilman acting as a judge keels over after sampling an entry, the party atmosphere dies just as quickly. Now it’s up to Bettina and her Knit and Nibble knitting club bestie, Pamela Paterson, to find the killer responsible for the murderous morsel.
MRS. CLAUS AND THE SINISTER SODA BREAD MAN by LIZ IRELAND
When April Claus arrives in Cloudberry Bay, Oregon, to check on her flooded inn, her biggest worry is to keep everyone from realizing her three companions—Jingles, Juniper, and Butterbean—are elves. But soon enough she has more serious worries—it looks like her hapless caretaker Ernie has been storing stolen goods at the inn! Then one of Ernie’s shady pals is found dead, and the murder weapon turns up in a decorative loaf of soda bread at April’s craft fair booth. It’s up to April to uncover the killer before she spends St. Patrick’s Day in the county jail!
My Review:
What fun to find a book that features St. Patrick’s Day as a theme! I’m only current with one of the series featured in this collection but I still found the other two novellas easy to jump in at mid series.
Irish Soda Bread Murder by Carlene O’Connor – Super excited about this addition to the ‘Home to Ireland’ series. I was so disappointed when it stopped after two books so I was eager to meet up with Tara and the gang in Galway. A fun mystery with a Christie-esque gather all the suspects together to reveal the killer grand finale. This is the only story actually set in Ireland and I was a bit let down since the narration didn’t include Irish accents (there’s only one American character in the mix.) It was kind of strange to hear some of the Irish phrasing without the lilt.
An Irish Recipe for Murder by Peggy Ehrhart – I’ve only read the first book in the ‘Knit & Nibble Mystery‘ series but it was fun to get reacquainted with these characters and I loved the Bake Off theme featuring Irish Soda Bread. Two amateur sleuths, a knitting group made up of an eclectic mix of personalities and a murder! Definitely more cozy than mystery in this novella. Lots of descriptive details on food and fibre crafts.
Mrs. Claus and the Sinister Soda Bread Man by Liz Ireland – My introduction to the Mrs. Claus series and this novella has charmed me into adding the rest of the books to my Serious About Series Challenge for the New Year. So. Much. Fun. The elves cracked me up all the way through (it’s their first time away from Christmastown.) So, quirky humour, great characters and a multi-layered mystery to solve. Not to mention a Soda Bread Man to bake. I’m still grinning.
I enjoyed listening to the audio edition of this collection, narrated by Carlotta Brentan. She did a great job giving distinctive voices to all the characters (with the exception of Irish accents in the first novella.) A pleasant listening experience.
My thanks to RB Media and Net Galley for providing me with an audio copy of this book.
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