Publisher: Berkley
Published: February 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0425251898
Genre: Cozy
Mystery, Women’s Fiction
Format: Print
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by
name and email address: Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com
Still mourning the death of her beloved grandmother, Maura
Donovan journeys to Ireland to tell the people of her grans former village that
she has passed. For Maura to go to
Ireland has long been a dream of her grandmother’s and she now finds herself on
the Emerald Isle to honor that last request.
What the finds when she arrives is a warm and welcoming group of people—people
who remembered or who had heard stories of her grandmother. Not one to let the grass grow beneath her
feet or to turn her back on those in need, no sooner has Maura arrived and she
finds herself working at Sullivan’s, the local pub. There she meets even more people who knew or
knew of her gran including Bridget Nolan, a woman who knew Maura’s gran as a
child. On her way back to town from visiting Bridget, Maura comes across a
police officer directing traffic away from a bog. She learns that they have uncovered a body from
the bog. Since no one has recently been
reported missing the discovery of the body is a bit of a mystery. Before the police can solve who the body in
the bog was, a local resident is killed. At the same time an unknown suspect
tries to run Maura off the road. And to top it off, Maura finds what could be a
clue to who the body in the bog was. She
keeps telling herself that all of these incidents couldn’t possibly be related—but
if they’re not, why is someone trying to kill her?
When I first started reading Sheila Connolly’s Buried in a Bog I
thought it was one of the most depressing stories I’d ever read. I didn’t particularly care for Maura and what
came across as an “oh poor me” attitude.
As I got deeper into the story it began to read more like women’s
fiction than a cozy mystery – but very good women’s fiction. The story became more about Maura’s journey
to self-discovery—who she is in the scheme of things and what she really wants from
life. She has a wonderful resiliency
that she learned from how she and her grandmother struggled to make ends meet
as well as her own inner sense of self.
I began to like Maura very much, especially as she became part of the
community in Leap, the town where much of the story takes place.
There were layers of mysteries in the story—what Maura’s connection
to Leap was, the man in the bog, who killed the local (Brad) and several other
threads. Connolly did a great job of weaving
them into one nicely done package.
Connolly’s
research on Ireland seemed true. I
enjoyed how she wove that research into Maura’s character in the scenes where
Maura thinks or speaks about the Irish she met while living in Boston.
As
I said, BURIED IN A BOG reads more like women’s fiction than a cozy mystery,
but don’t let that put you off if you are looking for a mystery. The mystery is in there, there are just more
elements to the story which make it all the better.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment