Review of "Death on the Green: A Dublin Driver Mystery" by Catie Murphy

In this second book in 'The Dublin Driver' series, limousine driver/amateur sleuth Megan Malone investigates murder on a golf course. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

After serving in the U.S. Army for twenty years, Texan Megan Malone takes advantage of her dual American/Irish citizenship to move to the Emerald Isle. Being gregarious by nature, Megan takes a job driving for the classy Leprechaun Limousine Service, where she gets to chauffeur - and chat up - the rich and famous.



Megan's boss/landlady, a crusty woman named Orla "could be a snake, and she'd take you for every penny she could", but Megan likes her job and her coworkers....and even has a grudging respect for Orla.



Megan's current clients are Martin and Heather Walsh, professional golfers who've come to Dublin for a golf tournament on Bull Island.







Heather is Martin's much younger third wife, which may explain why she puts up with his chauvinism and tendency to hog the limelight.

As the story opens Megan has dropped Heather off at the women's golf course and is tagging along with Martin's entourage as he plays on the men's course. As Martin and his retinue clear a rise on the 15th hole they spot a man, face down, in a pond.



Megan jumps into the freezing water and - with Martin's help - pulls the man out and does CPR. Megan's efforts are useless and the dead man turns out to be Walsh's friend and fellow golfer Lou MacDonald. Suspecting foul play, Megan phones Detective Paul Bourke, whom she'd met three months earlier, when one of her clients was murdered.



Bourke and his team discover that MacDonald was killed by a blow to the head, but a motive is hard to discern. MacDonald was a genial well-liked widower, in town to compete for the Ryder Cup wild-card position....as was Martin Walsh.

Before long another body turns up, and the case gets more complicated.

Megan, being an inherent nosybody, decides to investigate the crimes alongside the police. To accomplish this Megan eavesdrops on conversations; hovers around police interviews; and speaks to people who knew the deceased. Thus Megan befriends Lou MacDonald's daughter Saoirse - an environmental lawyer who's distraught about her dad's death.



At one point Saoirse spends the night in Megan's apartment and snuggles with Megan's three adorable dogs - a Jack Russell terrier and her two puppies, Dip and Thong (get it.....dipthong).



While Megan's investigating she still has to do her job, and Orla assigns Megan to chauffeur eccentric millionaire Carmen de la Fuente "who usually had two or three women hanging on her arms, dripping with lavish jewelry and, often, not much more."



Carmen wants Megan to wear a gold chauffeur's uniform for the evening, and even sends a sexy low-cut outfit in the right size. This leads to Megan and Detective Bourke being guests at a yacht party, where Megan gathers clues for her investigation.



The book has a wonderful Irish ambiance as Megan drives around Dublin and chats with the local people.



Additional characters include a knowledgeable caddie; an Irish actress in Hollywood; a pushy sports reporter; a snobby golf club manager; a neighbor who babysits Megan's dogs; Megan's co-workers at the limousine service; a woman from Megan's gym; and more - all of whom add a fun element to the story.

I enjoyed this pleasant cozy and look forward to reading more books in the series.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Catie Murphy), and the publisher (Kensington Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery" by Ellen Byron

In this third book in the 'Cajun Country Mystery' series, amateur sleuth Maggie Crozat investigates the murder of a scheming businessman. The book can be read as a standalone. ***** After a bad breakup with her boyfriend Chris, artist Maggie Crozat moves from New York City to her home town of Pelican, Louisiana. There Maggie shares a shotgun house with her Grand-mere; helps her parents run the Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast; and is a paid docent (tour guide) at a tourist attraction that was once the Doucet Plantation. As the story opens it's almost Christmas and Pelican residents are heralding the season. Wrought iron balconies are decorated with sparkling garlands and Christmas ornaments; business owners have painted their windows with snowy scenes; and bonfires are being built along the Great River Road, to guide Papa Noel (Santa Claus) on Christmas Eve. Bonfire builders compete to build the most elaborate structures, which range from a huge pyramid to a pirate ship to a wooden replica of a plantation. At the Crozat Plantation B&B, the guests include a Japanese tour group; an Ohio family called the O'Days; and a nit-picking California businessman named Donald Baxter, who complains about everything. Baxter is bad news all around. When scathing reviews of the B&B appear on Trippee.com, Baxter is the likely suspect; and Baxter's pushy arrogance gets him into a scuffle with Maggie's boyfriend, Detective Bo Durand. Maggie has other troubles as well. Her father has a health scare, brought on by the fact that developers may get control of the Crozat Plantation B&B; Maggie is concerned about her mother, who survived non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and Maggie has a demanding new boss at the Doucet Plantation. The new boss, Tannis Greer, fancies herself a playwright, and has written scripts for the Doucet Plantation docents. Thus Maggie now has to play a grieving Civil War widow as she hosts the guided tours....tears and all. To top it off, Maggie and her Grand-mere are perusing the internet one afternoon and discover that their querulous guest Don Baxter is really Steve Harmon, one of the developers trying to take over the Crozat B&B. The next day, Maggie - playing the distraught widow - is leading a tour group through the Doucet Plantation when she finds the body of Steve Harmon in a wingchair. Persons of interest for Harmon's murder include Maggie and her family; women who've been harassed by Harmon; Harmon's wife; Harmon's business acquaintances; and even Detective Bo Durand, because of their run-in. Bo is taken off the case and Maggie - determined to clear her family and friends - helps Sheriff Rufus Durand investigate. Rufus was once an enemy of the Crozats, but he softened when he became a daddy, and he and Maggie are almost cordial now. Before long another murder occurs, and Maggie and Rufus have TWO cases to solve. In addition to poking around the murders Maggie goes to exercise classes at DanceBod; hobnobs with her friends; eats delicious Cajun food and sweets; gets news about her cousin Lia, who owns a pastry shop and a candy store; and is surprised by her old boyfriend Chris, who's visiting Pelican as an art advisor. Maggie even gets a businesslike marriage proposal from Steve Harmon's brother-in-law - who wants to merge their 'southern royalty' bloodlines. I like the Cajun Country Mysteries but this book wasn't one of my favorites. There are too many characters, too many side-plots, too many romances, and an over-complicated solution to the crimes. The story is just too jam-packed. Still, I enjoyed visiting with favorite characters in Pelican, and would recommend the book to fans of the series. Recipes in the book include: Shrimp Remoulade Muffaletta Frittata Holiday Brandy Pain Perdu Coconut Pecan Bars Spicy Cajun Sugar Cookies

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "The Book of Two Ways: A Novel" by Jodi Picoult

When she was in her mid-twenties, Dawn McDowell was a Ph.D. candidate in the Yale Egyptology program....

.....headed by Professor Dumphries, who led the department's dig at Deir el-Bersha.



Dawn and fellow graduate student, Wyatt Armstrong - a handsome, golden-haired Brit....



.....rubbed each other the wrong way from day one, each vying to be the best and the brightest, and competing to be Dumphries' favorite.

Dawn and Wyatt sniped at each other constantly until the day they discovered a depinto - an inscription in hieroglyphics - beneath a rock ledge.



The depinto revealed the existence of a previously unknown tomb, and in their excitement - when Wyatt wrapped his arms around Dawn and spun her around - the two became friends....and then fell madly in love.



Dawn and Wyatt's area of study was 'The Book of Two Ways', an inscription in Egyptian tombs that depicts two paths to the afterlife, an upper water path and a lower land path. The deceased travels down one of the pathways, meeting guardians and watchers who prevent unworthy sinners from passing.


Illustration of The Book of Two Ways


The Book of Two Ways inscribed on the bottom of a coffin

Dawn and Wyatt, who seemed to be made for each other, made an excellent romantic AND research team. They pictured themselves together, leading digs; unearthing tombs; interpreting hieroglyphics; publishing articles; etc.



Then the unthinkable happened. Dawn learned her mother was in a hospice, dying of ovarian cancer. Dawn rushed home to Boston to care for her mother, who died a few weeks later. This made Dawn guardian of her 13-year-old brother Kieran, a responsibility Dawn took very seriously.



Thus, Dawn withdrew from the Egyptology program; met physicist Brian Edelstein; got pregnant; got married; became a death doula (a person who helps the dying at the end of their lives); and didn't say a word about any of it to Wyatt.

*****

We first meet Dawn fifteen years later, when her life is much different than what she pictured in Egypt. Dawn is married to physicist Brian Edelstein, a caring solicitous spouse who teaches at Harvard;



Dawn and Brian are raising their 14-year-old daughter Meret, a science whiz who attends summer STEM camp;



and Dawn is helping her client Win, a dying artist, peacefully approach her last moments.



Dawn's life takes a dramatic turn when Brian gets too cozy with an attractive graduate student and Win tells Dawn about her lost first love, whom she never forgot. Dawn feels compelled to go back to Egypt, find Wyatt, and continue studying the Book of Two Ways.



As Dawn navigates her life she's torn between Wyatt and her Egyptology studies on the one hand (the land path), and Brian and Meret on the other hand (the water path). That's the basic theme of the book.

The story moves back and forth in time, alternating between events fifteen years ago and events in the present. Some of the time jumps are purposely tricky. leading to twists I didn't see coming.

A Jodi Picoult novel is never simple, and the book includes a good bit of chitchat about ancient Egypt, physics, the responsibilities of a death doula, and Irish superstitions.

The ancient Egypt sections include discussions of Egyptian gods; beliefs; tombs; inscriptions; hieroglyphics; pharaohs; kings; queens; brothers; sisters; incest (which was common); marriages; burial rites; the afterlife; etc. It's like a mini-textbook about ancient Egypt.


Display of an ancient Egyptian tomb

The physics sections are about quantum mechanics and multiverses - the idea that there are infinite universes with parallel timelines. Thus I might be a physics professor giving a lecture in one timeline; a cab driver in a car crash in a second timeline; a ballerina rehearsing with the Bolshoi in a third timeline, married to my first boyfriend in a fourth timeline....you get the idea.



The duties of a death doula are exemplified by Dawn's recollections of former clients and her day-to-day care of Win. Death doula responsibilities can include helping the client declutter the house; make a will; plan a funeral; visit favorite places; write letters; comfort relatives; and so on. Whatever the client wants that's not medical-related.



The Irish superstitions are among the more light-hearted parts of the book. Dawn's mother was a VERY superstitious Irishwoman with a strong belief in the supernatural. She put safety pins in Dawn's clothing to ward off the evil eye; taught Dawn never to whistle indoors; instructed Dawn to look in a mirror if she left the house and had to come back in; made Dawn pay a penny after she gave her a Swiss Army Knife for Christmas; told Dawn she'd never get married if she sat in the corner at the table; and so on. These rituals are meant to insure good luck and prevent harm, and Dawn brings them up - usually in fun - as the occasion arises.



I found the 'extra bits' of the novel interesting, but some reviewers think the Egyptology and physics chatter is excessive and boring.

I enjoyed the book and was engrossed in Dawn's dilemma.....whether to choose Wyatt or Brian. You might be tempted to get judgy, but read the book first. 😊

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Jodi Picoult), and the publisher (Ballantine Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars