Book & Audio Review: Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly

Buried in a Bog
Author: Sheila Connolly
Narrator: Amy Rubinate
Series: County Cork (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley (February 5, 2013); Tantor Audio (January 31, 2014)
Length: 303 p.; 7 hours and 38 minutes 

Description: New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly introduces the first novel in the County Cork mystery series—set in a small village in Ireland where buried secrets are about to rise to the surface...

Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born—though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.

In the pub, she’s swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly one-hundred-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body’s connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she’s about to become mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head...

My Thoughts: At loose ends after her grandmother's death, Maura Donnelly decides to honor her grandmother's wishes and use her small inheritance to visit the small Irish village where her grandmother was born. Her grandmother never talked much about her life before emigrating; she was too busy working multiple jobs and taking care of Maura after Maura's father's death and her mother's desertion. 

Maura finds that there are a number of people in Leap who knew her grandmother and a number of relatives she didn't know she had. She'd barely arrived when a man's body was discovered in a local bog and she discovers a letter in a pub where she is temporarily working which might point to the identity of the man. But a new murder of a man who had just been in the pub takes over the time of the local police before they can see the letter Maura found.

Then Maura finds herself the target of a stalker who runs her off the road, harasses her when she's visiting her grandfather's grave, and breaks into her room at a local B&B. Neither she nor the police can understand why this is happening to a woman who's been in Ireland less than a week.

I enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator made Maura come to life. I could understand her new feelings of rootlessness and her bewilderment as she learns about the things her grandmother hadn't told her about Ireland. I liked the descriptions of the people and countryside. The mystery was well done. 

I'm eager to read more of Maura's adventures as she begins her new life in Ireland.

Favorite Quote:

Maybe the Irish had it right: expect the worst, and be happy about anything better.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.