Description (from cover):'Pub owner Maura Donovan may have Irish kin, but she doesn't seem to have the luck of the Irish. Who could have foreseen that bringing live music back to Sullivan's Pub would lead to a dead musician?
Summer is ending in County Cork, Ireland, and with it the tourist season. Expat Maura Donovan is determined to keep Sullivan's Pub in the black as the days grow shorter--but how? When she hears that the place was once a hot spot for Irish musicians who'd come play in the back room, she wonders if bringing back live music might be Sullivan's salvation.
As word gets out, legendary musicians begin to appear at the pub, and the first impromptu jam session brings in scores of patrons. But things hit a sour note when Maura finds a dead musician in the back room the next morning. It's going to take more than a pint and a good think to force a slew of potential suspects to face the music.'
My thoughts:
I personally tend to enjoy mysteries that take me to another place. This book is such a book. The setting is in a small country town in Ireland and features Maura Donovan, an ex-pat American who has inherited a little pub in small town Leap. Maura is still adjusting to her new surroundings and to the idea of being a pub owner. She is determined to make Sullivan's Pub survive and when a visitor plants a seed in her mind, she runs with it. Irish musicians used to use Sullivan's as a place to hang out and have jam sessions for the fun of it and she is determined to see if she can bring back the old magic to the pub. Of course, having a little extra cash flow doesn't hurt anything. That is until someone ends up dead.
I tried really hard to get into this book, but I struggled with it. I loved the setting, but to be honest, that was about all. The mystery was a little nonexistent and disappointing. There were hardly any clues or suspects and the solution was just lame. I prefer to have a mystery that keeps me on my toes and guessing until the very end. This just seemed like a story that just happened to have someone turn up dead in it. I was highly disappointed in this book and was expecting so much more. I hate when you love one aspect of the book and the rest of it doesn't really live up to your expectations.
It seems that I really didn't enjoy the first in this series and I enjoyed the second. I am sensing a trend here. Maybe I wasn't supposed to enjoy this book and the next one will be a little more entertaining. At least that is what I am hoping for. This author is a well-known cozy mystery author, so maybe it is just this series or this book, but I feel like I am missing something here.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Title: An Early Wake
Author: Sheila Connolly
Series: County Cork Mystery #3
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was purchased by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
