Death by the Book is the second book in the Mercy McCarthy series by Lucy Connelly. This fun cozy mystery series is set in the charming village of Shamrock Cove, Ireland.
Title: Death by the Book
Author: Lucy Connelly
Series: Mercy McCarthy #2
First Published: November 12, 2024
Publisher: Bookouture
Genres: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley
*** Thank you to the publisher, Bookouture, for inviting me on this book tour and for providing me with an e-copy of this book for review purposes ***
Mercy and Lizzie McCarthy are settling in to the charming seaside village of Shamrock Cove on the west coast of Ireland. Lizzie throws herself into organizing a book festival and mystery writer Mercy even agrees to come out of her bookish hidey-hole to get involved. But then the event’s star author is found dead. James Brandt was killed by a falling bookshelf in his own cottage…
The local detective is not convinced by Mercy’s suspicion of murder but when someone else turns up dead, the police cannot ignore it. There’s just one problem: Mercy and Lizzie’s beloved dog Mr. Poe sniffs out the second body in the storeroom of their own bookstore. And now all the gossips seem determined to pin the murder on Mercy!
Convinced the police are focusing on a red herring in this real-life case, Mercy needs to act fast to clear her name. A meddling mayor, a cheerful chef and a bashful botanist make her suspect list, but it’s not until Mercy discovers a tatty old photograph in the local library archive that she is onto the killer’s trail.
With the police keen to shut her out of the murder investigation, can Mercy play this case by the book, or will she be the next to fall off the shelf…?
Another charming visit to Shamrock Cove
After a fantastic start to the series (you can read my review of the first book, An Irish Bookshop Murder here), I was so excited to get my hands on the next book – and it didn’t disappoint! Mercy and her twin Lizzie continue to be a great pair. While Mercy does the bulk of the investigation and Lizzie continually warns her to stop, you can see that Lizzie is often just as curious. The two balance each other out in a very warm and sisterly way that I love.
There has been a small time jump between the two books and Mercy has started helping the local police detective, Kieran, with some cases. I still see him as a solid potential love interest for Mercy but there wasn’t much on the romance front this time around.
There were some subplots carried on from the first book which still don’t get resolved (which means there are more books to come!), including Mercy’s stalker from back home and more information about the father and grandfather that Mercy and Lizzie never knew.
The McCarthy sisters’ neighbours in their little closed street are still all very supportive, but played a smaller role in this book than the last one. It was a treat though whenever they popped up as I liked seeing their familiar faces. It would be so wonderful to have neighbours like that! There were a several new characters introduced who took up more of the story.
The murder victim(s) were not generally liked but there were so many differing motives and suspects that it was difficult to figure out who the killer was. There were several threads that I knew were connected but couldn’t figure out how and it was so satisfying to see them all come together in the end. The resolution was really satisfying and much more believable than many other mysteries where the heroine just magically saves the day.
I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this series! There’s so much to look forward to and I’m already itching to get my hands on the next book!
About the Author, Lucy Connelly (aka Candace Havens)
Bestselling author Candace Havens has published more than 25 books. Her novels have received nominations for the RITA’s, Holt Medallion, Write Touch Reader Awards and National Reader’s Choice Awards. She is a Barbara Wilson Award winner. She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation’s leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities from George Clooney to Chris Pratt. Candace runs a free online writing workshop for more than 2000 writers and teaches comprehensive writing classes. She does film reviews with Hawkeye in the Morning on 96.3 KSCS, and is a former President of the Television Critics Association.
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Quote from Death by the Book
