Irish Coffee Murder: A Book Review
Irish Coffee Murder is a trilogy of short stories by three popular cozy mystery authors all with the connecting theme of Irish Coffee and of course, murder.
It begins with Leslie Meier’s Irish Coffee Murder where local reporter and amateur sleuth Lucy Stone interviews the local Irish step dancers and discovers secrets about the dancers’ moms. When one of them is found murdered, Lucy unintentionally gets involved. I loved the quick pacing of the story and it wrapped up nicely as good novellas are intended to do. The characters of the small town were great and although Lucy’s boss is a grump, his realistic approach to heating costs and criticizing Lucy missing out on reporting the latest hot headlining news first had me giggling.
I am growing quickly to be a Lee Hollis fan as well. Death of an Irish Coffee Drinker is my second story I’ve read of Hollis’ and the relationship aspects she includes into her stories really brings the story to life alongside with solving the mystery of the murdered local celeb. It’s really nice to have a protagonist who is in a healthy marriage as that’s a huge difference than most protagonists in cozies. Also, the way the murder occurred was very unique and made this story really stand out for me.
While I wasn’t drawn into the Perked Up story by Barbara Ross as I was in the other two, I liked the exchanges of tales by the neighbours of an old local murder mystery and figuring out what actually happened.
I both read and listened to this book and I highly recommend the audio as the narration by Callie Beaulieu was done really well as she was great at voicing the quirky characters throughout all three stories.
Thank you Kensington Books for the advanced reading copy and Tantor Audio for the advanced listening copy. Thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
Book Description
You don't need to be Irish to enjoy St. Patrick's Day in Maine, where the chilly March weather offers the perfect excuse to curl up with an Irish coffee. But someone may have spiked this year's brew with
murder . . .
IRISH COFFEE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Part-time reporter Lucy Stone is writing a piece for the Courier about four Irish step dancing students from Tinker's Cove on the cusp of making it big. But the story becomes headline news for all the wrong reasons when one girl's mother is found dead in her bathtub. Did a stage mom take rivalry too far, or is some other motive at play?
DEATH OF AN IRISH COFFEE DRINKER by LEE HOLLIS
As owner of Bar Harbor's hottest new restaurant, Hayley Powell offers to cater the after-party for popular comedian Jefferson O'Keefe, who's playing his old hometown for St. Patrick's Day. But it's no laughing matter when Jefferson keels over after gulping down his post-show Irish coffee, leaving Hayley to figure out who decided this joker had gone too far . . .
PERKED UP by BARBARA ROSS
It's a snowy St. Patrick's Day in Busman's Harbor. But when the power goes out, what better way for Julia Snowden to spend the evening than sharing local ghost stories--and Irish coffees--with friends and family? By the time the lights come back, they might even have solved the coldest case in town . . .