3 Followers
27 Following
LauraM

LauraM

Murder at Wicklow Mensa - A fantastic behind the scenes trip to Ireland and great mystery!

Murder At Wicklow Mensa (Mensa Mystery Series #5) - Clare O'Beara

Cara Cassidy is a tough as nails Dublin tree surgeon. She is challenged by the grisly scene she finds when her police officer friend, Ricky Norton, asks her to use a tree to enter a high window of a home to check on the resident. Cara becomesthe glue that leads the reader through a tangled web of all those who were involved in the shady lives of the two insurance workers found dead inside the house.

 

This book was a great trip behind the scenes in Ireland. It highlights several slices of life and many different groups of people there. We get to see inside the lives of an office worker, police officer, porno actress, artist, small business owner, and drug dealer just to name a few. We even get to see a group of Dubliner's take a trip to a Mexican restaurant. As an American who would certainly focus on traditional Irish food if I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland, seeing the Dubliner’s reaction to their own local Mexican food is something thoroughly enjoyed!

 

My favorite characters were the victims whose post mortems become personalities in the story equally important as any others. I enjoyed how Ms. O’Beara slowly introduces us to Nicola Marr and William Fleming and the details of their lives unfold through the dialogue of other characters. We learn that Nicola is a calculating flirt and that she chose the wrong moment to use her womanly wiles to woo her way to a better position within the insurance company by spending an evening with the pot-bellied, unattractive and much older William Fleming. It is interesting to see how Cara uses her own network in Dublin to uncover the true facts about the case.

 

Cara’s connection with each individual made the story come to life as each conversation with a new person helped her to piece together the mystery and locate the killer. There are also fun educational facts scattered throughout the book. For example, when Cara’s friend, Police Officer Ricky Norton, tells Cara and Mike the correct order to sample cheese:

 

“You start with the hard or strong cheeses, like the Stilton, and continue to the medium cheeses, like Leicester, and finish with the soft and sweet cheeses, like Brie.”

 

I would highly recommend this book to mystery lovers, food lovers and anyone who is interested in traveling to or learning about another country and how different groups of people live, work and interact there.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-At-Wicklow-Mensa-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00E8NCWNS%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJ3XCC7GLJWZDXC2A%26tag%3Dbook0dc0-20%26linkCode%3Dsp1%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00E8NCWNS