Book Review: No Comfort for the Dead by R.P. O'Donnell

 Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Crooked Lane Books via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.

After witnessing a murder, a small-town librarian is forced to act when the local police arrest the wrong man, perfect for fans of Dervla McTiernan and Carlene O’Connor.

Synopsis:

1988, West Cork, Ireland. 

Emma Daly has returned to her home in Castlefreke, a small and peaceful village where everybody knows everybody. She has taken over the local library and is trying not to think about the scandal she left behind in the city. But when the richest man in the village is murdered and the main suspect is the mysterious son of a local family, her charming small-town life is turned upside down. 

Emma knows for a fact that there is more to the story, and when the family asks her to investigate, she decides to take matters into her own hands. 

Teaming up with a stubborn widow, an elderly hypochondriac, and her high school sweetheart, it is up to Emma to solve the mystery before either the police or the murderer can stop her. 

Review:

Emma was once a cadet at the Irish Garda Academy, before an incident sent running for the safety of home. But the fact is, she was really good at being a policewoman and detective, so no surprise when she gets asked to looks into the death of a local man, when her ex's family is involved. But the case has more questions than answers and as she starts to look to the past to see if it played into the possible murder, she realizes she's gotten into a twisted case. It's a cozy, with a touch of police procedural and chick lit thrown in! An interesting debut for this new series, I'll be looking forward to the next book!

About the Author:

R.P. O’Donnell was born to an Irish American family on the South Shore of Boston, Massachusetts. He was short and wore a back brace for two years, so he really had no choice but to love reading and writing from a young age. After graduating with a degree in English, he moved to a tiny fishing village in West Cork, where he lives with his family. He works as a marketing content writer and has published articles in the Irish Examiner and Irish Times. In 2020, he was chosen by Paul McVeigh as the winner of the J.G. Farrell Award at the West Cork Literary Festival. He is now planning the second and third novels in the Castlefreke series.