REVIEW: No Comfort for the Dead by R.P. O’Donnell

JayneBook Reviews / C- Reviews1980s / Dark / Ireland / librarian / murder mystery / Small-TownNo Comments

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.

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.

CW – misogyny, homophobia

Dear Mr. O’Donnell,

I was looking for something a little different to try and saw this mystery. The heroine is a librarian (yay!) and when read quickly, your name almost says RIP which, for a murder mystery, is something I couldn’t pass up.

Castlefreke is one of those small towns where everyone knows your business and has an opinion about it. It’s also dying due to a new highway that bypasses it as well as the fact that many of its young people leave for big cities where there are more choices, more options, just more.

Emma had also left with big dreams which came crashing down which are only hinted at many times until the end. But Emma’s made peace with that, sort of, and has found her place as the librarian for what had before been mainly a little used town center. It’s her hard work which has turned it into a well used third space for the village. Her propensity to take long, late evening walks puts her in the right place to hear a murder take place and possibly see whodunnit. Entering the building she finds one dead man and one injured priest. Racing to the pub, she tells the barkeeper and the town doctor about it but strangely doesn’t emphasize to the doctor for a while that the priest might need help for his feckin’ gunshot wound.

Adam, the doctor, knows the priest who is actually his long lost brother Colm. As Colm is discovered with a gun in his hand, the very one that was used to shoot the other man, Colm is placed under guard at the small local hospital. Everyone is interviewed but Emma is frustrated by the fact that one garda is so new as to not really know what to do or what questions to ask and the other is an arsehole who has obviously already made up his mind. As the arsehole has been an arsehole for a long time, I’m not sure why Emma was surprised.

Soon Adam and Colm’s parents are informed that he’s in hospital but due to the fact that 30 years ago, Colm hauled off and left home with no further word since (never explained to my satisfaction), they are reluctant to go see him. Two new characters, the slimy local solicitor and his secretary, are introduced and a new twist to the plot is added. Soon the town is busy speculating about Colm’s guilt (assumed) while Emma and two others begin to try and figure out who the real killer is since Emma realizes that the gardai won’t do shit about it. A few mystery (as in they’re not named during the scene) characters pop up and Charley, Emma’s old flame (they’ve ghosted each other for eight years) arrives home.

I have to say that for someone who seemed destined for a top job as a female garda, Emma blunders around a lot during this investigation. Was this supposed to endear her to the reader? Mary – the secretary who loathes her solicitor boss as much as everyone else does – does a much better job. As the book is not just a murder mystery but also an in depth dive into small town Irish life, a lot of time is spent on other things than trying to find the real killer. This includes great, big lumps of exposition to finally(!) explain the past issues for Emma, Colm, and Charley as well as background info on all the other characters. This does disguise the fact that a hint about the killer’s identity is provided among all the heaps of information but that’s the only hint and good luck to readers who want to play along and solve the mystery along with Emma and Mary.

The reason behind the killing as well as some other odd facts that come to light actually makes a lot of sense. I did enjoy some of the characters and little tidbits about Castlefreke. But frankly the last quarter of the book becomes a mish-mash of (much needed but still) info dumps. There is one big turn-about for a character that I found hard to believe and the take-down of the killer is a let down. I think that there are future books planned for this series but I doubt I will investigate them. C-

~Jayne

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