No Strangers Here Book Review

This novel will take you for a ride into the world of horses and vets in Ireland with a colloquial feel that breathes life into the scenes. If I had to describe this book in one sentence, it would be this: A trinity celtic knot of a mystery with two families and the damaging secret that has woven their pasts and futures together in an inescapable journey. While the setting fits in with one of Carlene O’Connor’s typical cozies, No Strangers Here is fashioned more along the lines of a traditional mystery from which most of the characters are connected by an underlying thread that is anything but cheery.

Dr. Dimpna Wilde is finding life hard since her husband’s suicide. Her vet clinic is being taken away from her and her son is also keeping his distance, causing the middle aged woman to rely on herself as she prepares to head home after a phone call from a long lost love, Paul Byrne. Finding out about her father’s dementia from an old friend, instead of from her own mother, was bad enough, but learning that he is a murder suspect topped the cake. Going home means facing the past she left behind and the pain of the deeply buried truth. Will she be able to confront the nightmare she hoped would never see the light of day?

On the flipside, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien has his task cut out for him. He is the new man in the town of Dingle, and is still trying to get on D.S. Neely’s good side. His first murder case is a man dressed in a suit and lying on a beach with sixty-nine black stones and the following message—Last Dance— carved into the sand. Cormac is not sure what he has stumbled upon, but as his investigation continues, it becomes clear that the answer lies between the Wilde and O’Reilly families. To him, Dimpna’s side appears harmless, but could a dreadful night from long ago have finally caught up to the Wildes?

If you want to know more about the author and her books, including her cozy Irish Bookshop mystery series, you can check her website out at the following link: https://carleneoconnor.net/

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