Look, I'll be honest. I started this one during a particularly brutal stack of sophomore essays on The Great Gatsby — you know, the ones where every third paper insists Gatsby was "just a rich guy who liked parties." I needed something light. Something that wouldn't make me question my career choices. And there's Siobhán O'Sullivan, running a bistro in County Cork with her five siblings, finding a dead body with pink barber scissors sticking out of his chest.
Perfect. Exactly what the doctor ordered.
Caroline Lennon Gets It
Here's the thing about cozy mysteries in audio form — they live or die by the narrator. You can have the cleverest plot in the world, but if the voice doesn't transport you, you're just listening to someone read a book. Caroline Lennon doesn't read this book. She performs it.
Her Irish lilt is the real deal, and I mean that. Not the Hollywood "top o' the mornin'" nonsense that makes actual Irish people cringe. This is warm, natural, the kind of voice you'd hear in an actual pub in Cork. She moves between characters with this effortless quality that took me a few chapters to fully appreciate. The O'Sullivan siblings — all six of them — each have their own vocal personality. That family dynamic complexity reminded me a bit of Family Upstairs: A Novel, though that one goes much darker with the sibling relationships. I could close my eyes during the family scenes and know exactly who was speaking without the dialogue tags.
(And yes, there are a lot of dialogue tags. "Siobhán said." "James said." The book leans on them pretty heavily. But Lennon's delivery makes you almost not notice.)
The pacing is where she really shines. The narrator understands that pause is punctuation. When the tension ratchets up — and it does, especially as the local garda starts eyeing the O'Sullivans as suspects — she doesn't rush. She lets the suspicion build. I found myself walking an extra lap around the lakefront just to get to the next revelation.
The Village as Character
This reminds me of what Hemingway said about Paris — that if you're lucky enough to have lived there, it stays with you forever. O'Connor clearly feels that way about County Cork. Kilbane isn't just a backdrop; it's practically a character. The bistro, the stone buildings, the gossip networks that would put any high school to shame. (Trust me. I know from gossip networks.)
The mystery itself is solid. Not groundbreaking — we're not reinventing the genre here — but satisfying. The pink scissors are delightfully weird. The suspects are plentiful. Siobhán is sharp without being annoyingly perfect, and her determination to clear her family's name feels earned. She's twenty-two and suddenly responsible for five younger siblings after losing her parents. That grief sits underneath everything, giving the cozy surface some genuine weight.
Now. Let's be real for a second. The book does repeat information. Multiple times. If you're the type who gets annoyed when a character explains something you already know, you might find yourself muttering at your phone. I noticed it more toward the middle — little recaps of clues, reminders of who's who. For audiobook listening, honestly, it's not the worst thing. I was grading papers at 11 PM (sorry, Principal Martinez, definitely wasn't listening during your email about parking lot procedures), and the occasional reminder helped me stay oriented.
But if you're giving this your full attention? Might feel a bit hand-holdy.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
This is comfort food. I mean that as high praise.
If you loved Murder, She Wrote or you're a fan of the cozy mystery genre in general, this is its spiritual successor in audiobook form. It's perfect for commutes, for walks, for those moments when you need something engaging but not emotionally devastating. My wife Denise listened to a few chapters with me on a Sunday lakefront walk, and she immediately asked if there were more in the series. (There are. Many more. We're in trouble.)
Skip this one if you need your mysteries fast and brutal. This unfolds at a leisurely pace — charming, but leisurely. I listened at 1.0x because, well, you know my stance on that. The author chose those words. Caroline Lennon chose those rhythms. Who am I to speed them up?
My students would probably hate this. Too slow. Not enough explosions. No one's doom-scrolling on their phone.
I loved it.
Final Grade
Ten hours is a solid commitment, and this one earns it. The audio production is clean, Lennon's narration is genuinely excellent, and the story delivers exactly what it promises: a cozy Irish village, a quirky murder, and a heroine worth rooting for. It's not going to change your life, but it'll make your commute better. It'll make grading papers at 11 PM slightly less miserable.
Worth pausing the faculty meeting for. Definitely.
