While I’ve read several cosies recently featuring televised cookery contests, this delightful setting in County Cork features another outing for Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan and Garda Macdara Flannery. This time the Irish Village Mystery series features MURDER AT AN IRISH BAKERY.
A reality TV baking contest is being held in Kilbane, at the Pie-Pie Love bakery established in the old flour mill, by Fia O'Farrell. In contrast with Siobhan’s large family of siblings, Fia is the last of her tribe. She needs the sponsorship money and publicity from the show a little too much, so she keeps wanting to press ahead no matter how bad matters get. And yes, they do get bad. Aoife McBride is a well-known cook of desserts and cakes, who will feature in the show. This should guarantee a large audience, as the lady has a fan club. A protestor holds the opposite view, that too much sugar is harmful and the contest should be cancelled. The Guards have to deal with this man and try to make him protest more quietly.
During the first round, a spanner is thrown in the works with unexpected secret instructions, which are sent by the sponsor but cause some chaos. Then, you guessed it, someone is found dead. And as someone else has already fallen ill, this seems like a good time to cancel the show. But Fia asks to continue. I don’t see this being likely, but it’s a story. And then we get another unexpected twist, which woke me up and made this quite different to all the other cookery contest mysteries.
There are a lot of names to remember, not many police, but with contestants new to the story and the villagers, it’s busy. New readers should be almost as well suited as those who have been following the series, because of all the new characters. The confectionery concoctions start out sounding great but become less so due to mixed-up recipes and whatnot, but there is a real recipe at the end of the book.
As always, when people from other countries set a story in Ireland, I get annoyed at inconsistencies. We do not have gophers in Ireland. The floor of a building on the ground is called the ground floor, not the first floor. Maybe these details are left to make American readers feel at home, but the point is that they want to read about County Cork.
MURDER AT AN IRISH BAKERY is number nine in Carlene O’Connor’s lively and fun Kilbane village series, which keeps getting more interesting.
The picturesque village of Kilbane in County Cork, Ireland, is the perfect backdrop for a baking contest—until someone serves up a show-stopping murder that only Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan can solve.
In Kilbane, opinions are plentiful and rarely in alignment. But there’s one thing everyone does agree on—the bakery in the old flour mill, just outside town, is the best in County Cork, well worth the short drive and the long lines. No wonder they’re about to be featured on a reality baking show.
All six contestants in the show are coming to Kilbane to participate, and the town is simmering with excitement. Aside from munching on free samples, the locals—including Siobhan—get a chance to appear in the opening shots. As for the competitors themselves, not all are as sweet as their confections. There are shenanigans on the first day of filming that put everyone on edge, but that’s nothing compared to day two, when the first round ends and the top contestant is found face-down in her signature pie. The producers decide to continue filming while Siobhan and her husband, Garda Macdara Flannery, sift through the suspects. Was this a case of rivalry turned lethal, or are their other motives hidden in the mix? And can they uncover the truth before another baker is eliminated—permanently . . .
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