Carlene O'Connor

It's almost time for the delicious warmth of Irish soda bread, but be careful where you bite-some of these recipes call for murder in this delicious collection of cozy mystery novellas featuring the popular St. Paddy's Day Treat. IRISH SODA BREAD MURDER by CARLENE O'CONNORThere's very little time left before her wedding but nonetheless Tara Meehan is helping out at her Uncle Johnny's salvage yard for the day. Aunt Rose set up a convention for local psychics, including a bake sale to raise money for charity, but now she's sick and available only via an iPad Johnny is carrying. The event promises to deliver a real pot of gold until Rose's biggest rival shows up. Before Tara can utter a simple "top o' the morning" to the man, he drops dead-with Johnny's soda bread in his hands. It's up to Tara to identify the deadly baker before another victim ends up chasing the rainbow straight into a grave... AN IRISH RECIPE FOR MURDER by PEGGY EHRHARTTo celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year, the Arborville, New Jersey, Advocate is sponsoring a soda bread-baking competition. Bettina Fraser is excited-her bake-off idea was the one to get the green light But when a town councilman acting as a judge keels over after sampling an entry, the party atmosphere dies just as quickly. Now it's up to Bettina and her Knit and Nibble knitting club bestie, Pamela Paterson, to find the killer responsible for the murderous morsel. MRS. CLAUS AND THE SINISTER SODA BREAD MAN by LIZ IRELAND When April Claus arrives in Cloudberry Bay, Oregon, to check on her flooded inn, her biggest worry is to keep everyone from realizing her three companions-Jingles, Juniper, and Butterbean-are elves. But soon enough she has more serious worries-it looks like her hapless caretaker Ernie has been storing stolen goods at the inn Then one of Ernie's shady pals is found dead, and the murder weapon turns up in a decorative loaf of soda bread at April's craft fair booth. It's up to April to uncover the killer before she spends St. Patrick's Day in the county jail

From Galway, Ireland, to the North Pole, to Salem, Massachusetts, a trio of Halloween mysteries that prove the spookiest season knows no borders . . . and neither does murder HALLOWEEN CUPCAKE MURDER by CARLENE O'CONNORWith Galway's Halloween Mystery Tour only a few days away, Tara Meehan is scouring the town's curiosity shops for spooky decorations to draw tourists into her architectural salvage store. But when a stranger appears in her shop bearing a cryptic cupcake and an ominous message, Tara suddenly finds herself tangled in a mystery with ancient Gaelic roots, but very modern--and very deadly--consequences . . . MRS. CLAUS AND THE CANDY CORN CAPER by LIZ IRELANDChristmastown is pulling out all the stops for their Halloween celebration, planning a huge carnival with rides, games, and a candy corn-themed bake-off But the sweet theme stokes the bitterest of rivalries amongst the elves, until tragedy strikes at Santaland's newest bakery. The only clue is a cupcake, leaving Mrs. Claus to sort through tricks and treats as she races to unmask a Halloween fiend . . . A TRIPLE LAYER HALLOWEEN MURDER by CAROL J. PERRYEvery October, Salem plunges into a month-long celebration of Halloween and WICH-TV's Lee Barrett can't wait to cover the festivities. But rumors swirl after a wealthy bakery owner goes missing--and his beloved cat, Cupcake, is found--under mysterious circumstances. Now, amid Salem's wicked revelry, Lee must conjure clues to reveal the missing millionaire . . . or the truth about his disappearance . . .

Jump right into the beauty and splendor--and murder--of bestselling author Carlene O'Connor's Home to Ireland Mystery Series, as a New Yorker travels to Galway to scatter her mother's ashes...and soon finds death is all around... Tara never imagined her introduction to Ireland like this--carrying her mam's ashes to honor her final request: "Tell Johnny I'm sorry...Take me home." She's never met her mam's estranged brother, Johnny Meehan, who owns an architectural salvage business in Galway. Although Tara is immediately charmed by the medieval city, the locals seem wary of strangers and a gypsy warns her that death is all around. When Tara arrives at her uncle's stone cottage, the prophesy seems true. A dead man lies sprawled over the threshold in a pool of blood. The victim turns out to be Johnny's wealthiest client, and her missing uncle is the garda's number-one suspect. In trying to find Johnny and solve the crime, Tara uncovers her mam and uncle's troubled past. But with a desperate killer about, she had better mind herself, or they'll be tossing her ashes in Galway Bay...

Based on the hit mobile game, a cozy murder mystery set in 1920s Paris by a USA Today bestselling author, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Agatha Christie. June’s friend has been brutally murdered and the police have the wrong man, can she solve the case before the killer catches up to her? Paris, 1922. The marriage between the Auclair and the Picard family is the talk of the town. June can’t wait to attend the engagement party with her friends, Nate and Jack. But Nate has an ulterior motive: he’s there to stop the wedding. Before he can complete his task, he’s stabbed in the chest with Jack’s knife. Jack is arrested, but June knows he wouldn’t hurt a fly. In this throwback to the classic whodunnits of Agatha Christie, June must find the real killer and clear Jack’s name. As she becomes embroiled deeper and deeper into a corrupt web of Parisian old money, high society and politics, she uncovers deadly secrets. Can June solve the case before the killer strikes again?

Acclaimed author Carlene O'Connor has long enchanted readers with her charming, smart, and quirky bestselling mysteries set in Ireland's idyllic locales. Now she delivers a heartfelt, relatable novel about one woman who travels to the Emerald Isle hoping to find a new direction for herlife--and finds so much more . . . Carlene Rivers is many things. Dutiful, reliable, kind. Lucky? Not so much. At 30, she's living a stifling existence in Cleveland, Ohio. Then one day, Carlene buys a raffle ticket. The prize: a pub on the west coast of Ireland. Carlene is stunned when she wins. Everyone else is stunned when she actually goes. As soon as she arrives in Ballybeog, Carlene is smitten not just by the town's beguiling mix of ancient and modern, but by the welcome she receives. In this small town near Galway Bay, strife is no stranger, strangers are family, and no one is ever too busy for a cup of tea or a pint. And though her new job presents challenges--from a meddling neighbor to the pub's colorful regulars--there are compensations galore. Like the freedom to sing, joke, and tell stories, and in doing so, find her own voice. And in her flirtation with Ronan McBride, the pub's charming, reckless former owner, she just may find the freedom to follow where impulse leads and trust her heart--and her luck--for the very first time . . .

Bestselling author Carlene O'Connor's third novel in the acclaimed Irish Village Mystery series is now available in trade paperback The village of Kilbane in County Cork, Ireland, has a new garda--and her first case is a grave matter indeed. "Outstanding...O'Connor reinforces her place as the queen of the cozy police procedural." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW for Murder in An Irish Bookshop It's official Siobh n is now Garda O'Sullivan, and her five siblings couldn't be prouder. While brother James runs Naomi's Bistro, Siobh n is doing her part to keep the village safe. Of course, Kilbane is pretty quiet compared to a place like Dublin, where Macdara Flannery has gone to be a detective sergeant. Good for him, but she still misses him. Then one night the local priest summons Siobh n to the church cemetery. There's a dead man in the graveyard--aboveground. He's a stranger, but the priest has heard talk of an American tourist in town, searching for his Irish ancestor. A detective sergeant is dispatched from Dublin to assist with the case, and as fate would have it, it's Macdara. After his parting, things are awkward between them, but they have to work together. They learn the victim was from Dublin--Dublin, Ohio, that is. And when his extended family arrives from the States, the plot thickens. Siobh n begins to dig for a motive among the gnarled roots of the family tree. But as long-buried secrets are unearthed, she and Macdara will need to stay two steps ahead of the killer or end up with more than one foot in the grave. "The intricate puzzle and continuing Irish atmosphere make this the series' best to date." --Kirkus Reviews

Against the stark beauty of southwest Ireland, veterinarian Dimpna Wilde must reckon with a stalker whose obsession has turned deadly in Carlene O'Connor's gripping, atmospheric Irish crime novel for readers of Tana French, Dervla McTiernan, and Ann Cleeves. "Isn't this how every ghost story begins?" The roads around Dingle are whisper-quiet in the small hours of a rainy night, empty of the tourists who throng the town by day. As she and her assistant, Patrick, drive home after an already traumatic day, Dimpna Wilde isn't expecting to see anyone, let alone her employee, Niamh, standing in the road, dressed in a nightgown and soaked to the skin. Dazed and distraught, Niamh passes out after muttering incoherently, and at her apartment, Dimpna and Patrick make a grisly discovery. There's a dead woman in Niamh's bed, shot in the head, a hunting rifle beside her. When Niamh comes to, she has no memory of the day's events, and no idea of the woman's identity. All she can tell Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien with certainty is that for weeks, she's felt like she was being watched. Suspicion falls on Niamh's new boyfriend, Mark Gallagher, who her friends have not yet met. But as Dimpna and Cormac try to track him down, they realize there's no evidence Mark Gallagher ever even existed. All of Niamh's texts and photos of him are missing or deleted, and he has no social media presence. What lingers is a nagging unease, especially when they learn of another, similar murder one year ago--another woman found shot to death in her bed, a woman who had complained of being stalked, just like Niamh. As Dimpna delves deeper into a twisting case, she feels someone watching her too, targeting her business, her animals, her family--even her sanity, willing to do anything to stop her from disclosing a terrifying truth . . .

With the haunting, moody prose of Tana French and the compulsive storytelling of Dervla McTiernan or Ann Cleeves, bestselling author Carlene O'Connor lures readers to a remote village on Ireland's southwest coast, where winding windswept roads open to spectacular views of rugged cliffs against immense, lonely beaches...and some fear a mysterious cult could be connected to the disappearance of a young pregnant woman. After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they're in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby. But the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of Shauna being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from 29 years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she's grateful for the help of a well-meaning 10-year-old boy, Dylan. But when the lad goes missing after bicycling to a bog on a dare, she is desperate to help find him. But somewhere, in a cold, dark room, Shauna is trapped with her unborn child's and a mysterious boy. If she is to have any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, she'll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out, and her baby will be born soon . . .

USA Today bestselling author Carlene O'Connor's second novel in the acclaimed Irish Village Mystery series is now available in trade paperback The O'Sullivan clan of County Cork, Ireland, are thrilled to be catering the matrimonial affairs of a celebrity couple-until a cunning killer turns an Irish wedding into an Irish wake.... Any wedding is a big deal in the small village of Kilbane--even more so when the bride is a famous fashion model. It's also good for business. Not only has customer traffic picked up at Naomi's Bistro, Siobh n O'Sullivan and her five siblings have a full plate catering for thethree-day affair. And Siobh n's own beau, local garda Macdara Flannery, gladly steps in as best man after the groom's first choice makes a drunken arse out of himself. Even if he hadn't been disinvited to the wedding, the original best man wouldn't have been able to show. He's been found murdered in the woods, casting a pall over the nuptials. And when a second member of the wedding party is poisoned by a champagne flute engraved with Macdara's name, the garda goes from being best man to prime suspect. With a killer at large and a string of robberies plaguing Kilbane, Siobh n feels more than a little protective of her village. She vows to clear Macdara's name, but the suspect list is as long as the guest list. Like the bride walking down the aisle, Siobh n needs to watch her step. For as she gets closer to unveiling the truth, the murderer is planning a very chilly reception for her . . .

"With the haunting, moody prose of Tana French and the compulsive storytelling of Dervla McTiernan or Ann Cleeves, bestselling author Carlene O'Connor lures readers to a remote village on Ireland's southwest coast, where winding windswept roads open to spectacular views of rugged cliffs against immense, lonely beaches...and some fear a mysterious cult could be connected to the disappearance of a young pregnant woman. After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they're in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby. Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she's grateful for the help of a well-meaning ten-year-old boy, Dylan, at the veterinary clinic. But when the lad goes missing after going into a bog on a dare with two other boys to search for a "monster," she is desperate to help find him. After the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of a deaf pregnant woman being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from twenty years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd, lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Though allegations of baby smuggling were never proven, he'd been put away on other charges. But then they learn that the Shepherd has recently been released from prison. Trapped in a cold, dark room with a frightened boy, Shauna fears for their lives as well as that of her unborn baby. If she has any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, as she calls her abductor, she'll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out and her baby will be born soon ..."