Maura Donovan doesn't know a whole lot about her Irish ancestry or about her grandmother's past but when her Gran passes, her final wish is for Maura to go to Leap, a small Irish village in County Cork, where her Gran was born. At loose ends in her life, Maura jumps on a plane and soon finds herself working in a pub, pouring drinks for the locals while listening to their tales, true or not.

When a nearly one hundred year old body is discovered in a bog nearby, Maura realizes she may have a clue to the identity of the victim. That's not the only murder victim in Leap though. Another body turns up, this one much fresher than the last, and Maura thinks there's a connection between the two murders. When Maura finds her own life in danger, she begins to wonder if finding out where she comes from is really worth getting involved in a murder investigation, especially if she doesn't survive to see the future.

BURIED IN A BOG, Sheila Connolly's first book in her County Cork Mystery series, introduces us to Maura Donovan, an Irish lass who doesn't know much of anything about her family or where they come from. I have mixed feelings about Maura. On one hand she's pretty tenacious and level headed; on the other hand, her constant pity party in regards to how she grew up can get tiresome. I'm hoping she'll be a little less woe-is-me in the next book in the series. The mystery of the killer is one you'll figure out fairly easily but Connolly makes up for that with her vivid description and vast knowledge of Ireland. You can tell Connolly has spent a lot of time on research and has much love for Ireland. Her in-depth narrative pulls you into the story and brings Leap to life. If I didn't already want to visit Ireland, I definitely want to now. BURIED IN A BOG is the first book in an entertaining and engaging series which I hope continues for many books.

Book Summary

National bestselling and Agatha Award-nominated author Sheila Connolly introduces a brand-new series set in a small village in County Cork, 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...

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