In this third outing in the series, Maggie D'Arcy and her daughter Lilly have come to Ireland to spend the summer with Conor and Adrien, to decide whether to permanently move there. They've rented a cottage in West Cork on the coast and look forward to some peace and quiet.

But a young man's body has been found in the sea at the bottom of the cliff and Maggie can't help but be a little curious. Was it suicide, an accident or murder? She also gets roped into looking into an old mystery by their elderly landlord. The old and decrepit manor house on the cliff has secrets to tell. Could it be haunted?

Meanwhile she dealing with her daughter's angst about making a permanent move to Ireland but maybe falling in love will ease the way...

I enjoyed these characters with their many problems and secrets. The setting was creepily atmospheric and added to the tension of the plot. The ending kept me on pins and needles--quite dramatic! I'll definitely look forward to reading more in this series.

I received an arc of this new mystery from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

Summer in Rosecliffe was meant to be a time for Maggie to make some decisions about the future, for Lily to experience life in Ireland, for both of them to bond further with Conor and his son Adrian. And it is, except that Maggie finds herself drawn into, at her own initiative, the investigation of the death of Lukas, a Polish construction worker who had gone missing weeks before. Rosecliffe is experiencing the sort of growing pains of so many picturesque towns when developers move in. Is the murder of Lukas connected? Maggie's also agreed to look into a lingering mystery for her landlord, who once owned the big house. Lily finds a new special friend in Alex, which worries Maggie, as he was a friend of the dead man. And then there's another death. This is less twisty and has less insight into Irish history and politics and policing than the earlier books and, because Maggie is not a serving officer, it can't be termed a procedural. The characters are good (even Conor's ex and her new fiance), the story zips along, and it's topical. As with the last installment, a few paragraphs of explanation about Lily's trauma would be helpful (especially for new readers). That said, it's still a terrific read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers but there's terrific potential for the next one- and I'm looking forward to it.

I love a book with a ton of secrets waiting to be discovered. Maggie Is an amazing character, she is strong and smart, I loved that about her, I feel horrible I didn’t read the first 2 books to understand Maggie as a detective. In this book she’s retired, on vacation and stuck right in the middle of some town drama. There is secrets to uncover, greed, drugs, and murder, it was a page turner because you wanted to know what’s next, but the book took its time to reveal everything in the end. I love the romance that blossoms between her daughter and Alex, it added some sweetness to the story going on around them.
Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I have been reading a lot of books lately that have a smart & tough female detective main character! The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor is another on that list. This is book # 3 in the Maggie D’arcy series. Overall, I enjoyed this book, especially the main character and the setting of the coast of Ireland. There were some parts of the story that ran a little too slow paced for my liking, which bumped my rating down by half a point. I plan to try reading book # 1 in this series to see if it was just this book that’s pacing was off.

Thank you @netgalley and @minotaur_books for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

First time reading this author. This is a well-plotted story with some unpredictable moments. It was a real page-turner, I couldn't wait to read what was next. This book was engaging, atmospheric, and suspenseful. This novel should delight those readers that enjoy international mysteries that have strong female characters and an absorbing plot. I do feel that this would not work well as a stand-alone. It’s important to have Maggie and Lily’s background from the prior books. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

This is the third in the Maggie D’Arcy series; it is the first I have read. It works as a standalone but references to things in Maggie’s past made me wish I had read the others as well for better background. The prior novels bridged New York and Ireland; this one is set totally in the Emerald Isle.

Maggie, no longer a New York detective, and her daughter are spending the summer in Ireland with her lover and his son in preparation for a permanent move there. While vacationing on the West Cork Seaside, she is drawn into the local drama of controversy over the redevelopment of a rundown manor house and two suspicious deaths.

Although the deaths are at the center of the story, this is not really a police procedural. Rather, it focuses more on Maggie and her “family” as well as the relationships, secrets, and conflicts of this small Irish village.

With strong character development and atmospheric descriptions of the seaside environment, It takes a while for the mystery to develop. I had some difficulty keeping some of the characters straight and I thought the plot lines unraveled a bit near the end. Still it was an engrossing, entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the DRC

The third novel in Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Maggie D’Arcy series finds Maggie at a crossroads. Formerly a Long Island cop, she’s now unemployed, and in Ireland with her daughter on holiday with her boyfriend, Connor and his son. The first novel was Maggie’s journey backwards: the looked for the killer of her cousin, who had disappeared in Ireland twenty years before. The second novel finds her investigating a crime that begins on a Long Island beach but has roots in Ireland. This third novel finds her firmly in Ireland, planning to move there, and deciding what she should do as far as a new career. As the book makes obvious, she very much misses police work and hates being on the outside looking in (this is a clue to her eventual decision, but it’s hardly a spoiler).

More than anything else, these novels are a love letter to Ireland. While the first two had more of a city focus, this one is out in the country, by the water, where Maggie finds a great deal of solace in running and in early morning swims in the very cold sea. The atmosphere, the detail of the landscape – Stewart Taylor takes her reader there. This book also boasts a nice, haunted, gothic, creepy mansion at the center of it all.

The little village where Maggie and Connor are spending their holiday is centered around this old mansion, the “Big House” of past days, where many of the villagers worked and where one of them, Lissa, lived as a girl. She has sold the family home to developers and lives in a cottage where she paints and where she has a bird’s eye view of her former family home.

Added into this mix is a scattering of Polish workers, in town to work the construction jobs springing up as the old house is developed into a hotel and as fancier cottages are being built. The natives are split on whether development is good or bad – I kept flashing back to the 80’s film, Local Hero, where one of the characters, talking about proposed development in a tiny, picturesque Scottish town, says “You can’t eat scenery.” Obviously, there’s a case for each side.

Then there is the unexplained body that washes up on the beach, the body of a young Polish man who has disappeared several months in the past. Maggie is drawn to the mystery not only because that was her job, but because the dead man is connected to the young man her teenage daughter is now dating. She’s interested in the connections.

This novel is very much about connections as Maggie is appreciating her connection with Connor; figuring out her changing connection to her teenager, Lilly; the connections she might be able to form in her possible new Irish home, and whether they will be as resonant as the long-established ones she had home in Long Island. She’s homesick, but she’s also looking forward. The book makes a case for community, for family connection, and ultimately, for connection to nature. The gentle mystery is an integral part of this beautifully written story, but it’s only a part. True to form, Stewart Taylor wraps things up with a bang. I felt like I’d been to Ireland after I closed the book, and I very much enjoyed the journey. I’m looking forward to seeing how Maggie’s next life decisions play out.

Book #3 in the Detective Maggie D’arcy series. Maggie and Lilly have travelled to Ireland the summer to be Conor and his son. She hopes by the end of the summer she will have made her decision of her and Lilly making the move permanent. Maggie has given up her job as a Detective in Long Island but you can’t take the Detective out of Maggie. When bodies start to pile up around their vacation home she can’t help but investigate. The mystery in this book was a bit slower pace but overall decent. I have enjoyed these books and look forward to what happens next for Maggie, Conor and the kids.
Thanks NetGalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read this Arc.

🌊Will a local death investigation help her decide her future?🤔

The murder mystery in The Drowning Sea was complex, involving several time periods, loads of characters and a strong female lead protagonist at a crossroads in her personal life. She's got a lot of future to figure out for her, her teenage daughter Lily and the Irish man in her life, then ends up spending what should be an idyllic, quiet vacation on the sea tangled up in local murders and a decades old mystery involving her landlady.

I was kept guessing through most of the book, partly because there are so many characters reluctant to spill the beans about what they know. But Maggie keeps digging and nudging her Irish police contacts for insider information. I found that part a bit off because why should they bring her in the loop when she's a retired U.S. cop with no official standing in Ireland?

A good story, though I did not feel the sense of urgency I prefer in my police precedural murder investigations until the climax. The romance is low key and, for readers who prefer their murder mysteries without romantic overtones, this one should be fine. The daily routines and family life are realistic but don't take the focus away from the criminal investigation. Will I follow this series? Possibly.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

As always a great story about a Boston Police Officer, who has ties in Ireland. When vacationing there, she helps uncover a mystery, and solve a decades old local mystery too. I love how this series follows her and her daughter through their lives. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Maggie D’Arcy is with her daughter Lilly, her boyfriend Conor and his son for the summer in West Cork. Maggie is planning on both her and Lilly moving there to Ireland and she wants them to get used to being there by spending the summer exploring. When a body washes up on the village beach, it’s a different turn to what was to be a quiet and restful vacation. As Maggie is not an active detective anymore, she still starts digging around and asking questions of the villagers. Many secrets and past deeds come to light, some more dangerous than Maggie could imagine.

4.5/5⭐️

Number 3 in the Maggie D’arcy mystery series, this one finds Maggie, Conor and kids on vacation in Ireland on a remote West Cork peninsula.

Maggie, a former Long Island homicide detective, is currently unemployed and facing some life decisions to be made. Meanwhile, she witnesses two mysteries unfold around her. One involving drugs, murder and coverups, the other (unrelated), a decades-old disappearance and possible murder.

This one is very atmospheric and includes as its backdrop a very creepy Anglo Irish manor house that has witnessed its own dark deeds. A few surprises, very descriptive writing and seeing the continuing evolution of characters make this another installment that I fully enjoyed.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing the free early arc of The Drowning Sea for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of The Drowning Sea. Located in a very small town on the coast of Ireland, this story has all the elements of a good UK detective story—moody landscape, small town where everyone knows everyone, historic mansion now empty awaiting transformation into a hotel, mysterious goings-on. This is the third in a series with Detective Maggie D’Arcy, but the first for me. Maggie is a Long Island detective and widow with a teenage daughter who is involved with someone new and contemplating a permanent move to Dublin with him and his son. Summering on the coast introduces a cast of interesting characters in a small village where everyone has an opinion on the development that’s occurring. Add to that several deaths that may not be what they seem and you have a recipe for a good mystery.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, St. Martin’s Press and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Book three of a series. I’d read the previous two first but it’s not a necessity, it just helps.
Fabulous read, interesting characters.

The Drowning Sea
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Mystery / Police Procedural
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 6/21/22
Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Pages: 352
Goodreads Rating: 4.18

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: For the first time in her adult life, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is retired. But their calm vacation in Ireland takes a dangerous turn when human remains, construction worker Lukas Adamik washes up below the steep cliffs of Ross Head. The initial thought was that he threw himself off the cliff. But as Maggie gets to know the residents of the nearby village and learns about the history of the peninsula and its abandoned Anglo Irish manor house, once home to a famous Irish painter who died under mysterious circumstances, she starts to think there's something else going on. Something deadly.

My Thoughts: This is the third book in the Maggie D’arcy series. I have not read the first two and just read this one as a stand alone. I was able to keep up even with not reading the other prior books in the series, it could be read as a stand alone. It starts as a slow burn building the characters and backstory but soon speeds up and I could not put down. The multifaceted characters are well developed with depth, engaging, and likable. The author’s writing is complex, flows well, is creative, and just works well for this novel. The author’s description of the small town in Ireland was very quaint and the other scenery and cliffs are prosed so well, I could envision it my head. The book kept me engaged and I enjoyed reading it very much, I will definitely be checking out the first two books in this series, as well as reading future books in this series.

This is book 3 of the series, and it just keeps getting better! Maggie wants to leave her old life behind her and start afresh in Ireland, but life, and her family might be conspiraring against that idea! What seems like a simple vacation for her and Conor to blend their families, to make sure it will work, soon brings her true talents back to the serfuace, and she instinctively knows something is wrong with the murder at hand, and nothing is as it seems. She can't help to get involved, as it is part of her dna, dut to a lifetime in law enforcement. Soon she'll uncover more than she thought she ever could. Cant wait for the next book in the series, to see how Maggie's life turns out, after her choice at the end of this book!

This is a story as old as time! Sometimes we believe what is said and others we don't, but GREED is a terrible thing to have. Questions, and watching always answers . Towns don't change?

The third in the Maggie D'Arcy series, this book has Maggie and her daughter spending the summer in Ireland, exploring how it would feel to move there. They've rented a cottage with Connor and his son, and get involved in the local problem of drug smuggling. Because Maggie is no longer a police officer, she is shut out of the investigation by the Irish Gardai, but that doesn't keep her from pursuing her own lines of inquiry.

The plot is interesting, though not as intense as the first two books in the series. One of the difficulties is the number of characters the reader must keep track of. The book is also told from multiple points of view, which work for a while, but become a bit choppy toward the end of the book and leave the reader with the feeling that it is somewhat rushed. The end, particularly, seems to cut short much of the activity to get to the final chapter. Because this is the point the book has been building to, it is a little bit of a let-down to have it abbreviated.

Characters are well drawn, as in the past, and the storyline of Maggie's daughter is interesting. The book might be more entertaining if there were fewer threads to the storyline so that more in-depth writing of them could be accomplished.. As it is, there's less suspense and more, here's a "bad guy" and here's the "bad guy" getting arrested.

I've enjoyed this series, and still enjoyed reading this book to follow what was happening with Maggie and those important to her. I would have preferred a little more depth to the entire book.

Sarah Stewart Taylor balances a police procedural with sleuthing by a former homicide detective and with family drama in The Drowning Sea , the third book in her Maggie D’arcy series. Maggie is currently unemployed and on vacation in the village of Rosscliffe on a remote West Cork peninsula in Ireland. Her daughter Lilly as well as her boyfriend Conor and his son Adrien are with her.

When a tourist finds the body of construction worker Lukas Adamik, everyone seems to think he committed suicide by jumping from the cliffs into the sea. However, as Maggie learns more about the village and its people, she thinks it could be murder. When Lilly starts dating one of Lukas’ friends, Maggie is determined to get answers and protect her daughter.

The author does a great job of characterization. The characters, brimming with personality and depth, make it easy to bond with many of them and be wary of others. The protagonist is determined to solve the various mysteries and learn more about the history of the village, but she is far from perfect. Deciding whether to move from Long Island to Ireland is only the beginning. If she and Lilly move, what will Maggie do? There’s no going back to her old job in New York. How will Lilly adjust? While points of view shift throughout the novel, Maggie’s is the central one. The transitions worked well for me.

This is a well-plotted story with some unpredictable moments and a few twists and turns. For a small and relatively remote village that is gaining tourist interest, there was a lot of action, deception, half-truths, secrets, mysteries, and outright lies. Nevertheless, which ones are important? I kept turning the pages wondering what I would surmise next. The world-building is excellent, transporting me to the coast of Ireland. I could easily visualize the village and the Ross Head peninsula and feel the wind blowing in from the sea. While this worked as a stand-alone novel for me, I believe it would have been beneficial to read the earlier books in the series first. The novel isn’t fast paced, but it held my interest throughout.

Overall, this book was engaging, atmospheric, and suspenseful. It gave readers an opportunity to try to solve the multiple mysteries along with Maggie and the police. How successful will you be? This novel should delight those readers that enjoy international mysteries that have strong female characters and an absorbing plot. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books and Sarah Stewart Taylor provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for June 21, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

I haven't read the first two books in this series, and I think that I should have. I felt like I was missing a lot of background information that would have helped me understand some references made, and why the characters did certain things.

I love the setting, and Sarah Stewart Taylor does an amazing job of describing the beautiful landscape of Ireland, and the small town the characters are visiting. I did like the mystery that Maggie was trying to solve from Lissa's past, but it felt like a lot was going on with the police trying to figure out what happened to Lukas, and the other sort of drama with the family figuring out if they are going to be moving to Ireland, and if they do what kind of job would Maggie do? I also had a bit of trouble with the way the perspectives were kind of jumping around between Maggie and one of the other characters. It didn't really feel like we needed the second one.

All in all, I did enjoy the mystery and how everything came together in the end, I would definitely go back to the beginning and read the first two books in the series.