An outstanding start to a new series! I am absolutely loving the main characters! Mercy, an author and Lizzy, a businesswoman, are twins who have suffered a series of tragedies and find themselves the heirs to property in Ireland. While the twins have a lot of similarities their personalities are unique and distinct which makes them so much more realistic. The background stories of the neighbors' ties into the mystery that surrounds the twins when they arrive and many suspicious events later, they are fully wrapped into the center of the mystery. The book is so well crafted that I ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish as I just couldn't put it down. The narrator did such a magnificent job of bringing the unique personalities to life that I will definitely put this series on my must listen list!!! Now, I just want the author to hurry and write more, more, more as there are still unanswered questions about the twin's heritage and inheritance! Whether you are an audio lover or a read the book lover, this series is sure to fill your cozy mystery loving needs!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
What a nice cozy mystery. I loved the characters and the small town setting. The theme of starting over but also a murder mystery thrown in as well.
Great listen and I loved the narrator. I hope there are more in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for the advanced copy of this book.

Kimberly Wetherell does a great job narrating this book. The different voices and different accents really help differentiate characters. I would give her 5 stars for her performance!

A cozy murder mystery set in a small Irish town where two twin sisters have inherited a cottage and a bookstore from their late grandfather. One sister is an author and the other sister is hoping to have a fresh start after things in her life go wrong. When a well known member of the community dies their first night there, they spend their time proving they aren’t the guilty party.

Everyone is a suspect but you don’t get a ton of direction pointing you toward any one person. It wraps up much differently than i expected with a motive that didn’t seem to match the rest of the story.

**An Irish Bookshop Murder**

**Rating:** ⭐️⭐️⭐️
**Format:** Audiobook
**Speed:** 1.25x

Our story begins with twin sisters Mercy and Lizzie. Both women have just moved to Ireland for a fresh start. Their estranged grandfather left them his house and bookstore. Lizzie had a lilac farm in Texas, and Mercy is a famous mystery author. The move was prompted by the decline and death of their mother, as well as Lizzie’s fiancé and his daughter. No sooner had the women settled in on their first day than a local resident is murdered. Readers are taken on a murder mystery adventure with a touch of romance and a frantic rush to solve the case before someone else in this quaint town ends up dead.

**Highlights:**
⭐️ **Lizzie & Mercy:** Their sister dynamic brings a breath of fresh air to the story.
⭐️ **Character Background:** I was genuinely surprised by the “darkness” in Lizzie and Mercy’s past. Both women lost their mother, Lizzie lost her fiancé and his daughter, and Mercy mentions having a stalker in NY. When I think of cozy mysteries, I imagine a Hallmark or Lifetime happy-go-lucky scenario where the protagonist stumbles upon a case; I certainly wasn’t expecting their reasons for moving to be so serious.
⭐️ **Little Spark of Romance:** 😉
⭐️ **Story Location:** A bookstore in a cute, quaint little town by the shore in Ireland? Yes, please.

**Pitfalls:**
❌ **The Twist Was Meh:** I was surprised by the reveal, but to be honest, I didn’t fully understand it. I didn’t think the motive or intention behind the murder made much sense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for the early ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
*Social media posts will be done closer to publication dates.

Fantastic kickoff to a new cozy mystery series. This book is chocked full of cozy charm, great characters, and an intriguing mystery. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read more.

This was nearly everything I want out of a cozy mystery. Irish, small town community setting? Check. Nosy neighbors that make you laugh? Check. Amateur sleuthing? Check. It was such a fun book, and the narrator was wonderful.

Title: An Irish Bookshop Murder
Series; Mercy McCarthy Mystery Book #1
Author: Lucy Connelly
Format: 🎧
Narrator: Kimberly Wetherell
Publisher: Bookouture Audio
Pub Date: August 22, 2024
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 - rounded up!!
Pages: 290

Mystery writer Mercy McCarthy and her twin sister Lizzie are new to Shamrock Cove, Ireland.
They have recently experienced personal tragedies - their mother recently died and Lizzie also has been grieving the death of fiancé.
They just found out that a Grandfather they never knew had left them a cottage and bookstore in Ireland.
They decided they have nothing to lose by leaving the US (Mercy-New York and Lizzie-Texas) and head to Ireland.

They are immediately greeted by a wonderful group of grandfather’s friends. Well- all but an elderly judge who was a close friend is NOT friendly.
As the story title indicated there is a murder – yep the judge! Although there are a lot of suspects- whodunit fooled me!

I love the main characters. Narrator Kimberly Wetherell does a fab job performing the characters. Additionally I love Shamrock Cove and am looking forward for the next book in this fun cozy mystery series.

Needless to say - I just loved this story. I didn’t want to give too much away as I want
you to enjoy and love it as well.

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for granting me this audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 22, 2023.

Loved it!
Quaint, charming, cosy, funny, lovely characters, a mystery I can’t guess the answer to, everything I want from a cosy mystery!
I haven’t been to Ireland myself so I can’t comment on the accuracies of the culture but I found the whole thing very enjoyable and can’t wait for more.
Loved the narrator.

Mercy and Lizzie need a fresh start, so when they receive a surprise inheritance from the grandfather they didn't even know existed, they head off to tiny Shamrock Cove in Ireland - just a bit different to Texas! They are welcomed with open arms by the locals and the descriptions of the little village, the bookshop they inherited and the fabulous characters, was wonderful! I adored the secret doors!

When the local judge dies, accusing Mercy of being his killer as he takes his last breath, the two sisters are thrown into turmoil, as is the whole village. As a bestselling crime writer, Mercy thinks she can solve the crime, but the local police aren't so keen for her involvement.

I loved Mercy’s directness and there is some great banter in the book - throughly enjoyable.

Kimberly Wetherell's narration was excellent, she had the accents spot on and it made it very easy to understand which character I was listening to.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Lucy Connelly and Bookouture for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the whole book! It was really interesting from the start. I really hope to be able to read more from this author in the future! I loved the relationship between sisters, working the law enforcement officers, and the amateur sleuthing. A quick listen and super enjoyable!

This was a good start to a new series. I loved the setting but never really warmed to Mercy. The rest of the characters seemed like caricatures, the required quirky people that have to be in each town in a cozy and never really felt fleshed out. I am not a fan of breaking in to get clues so the multiple attempts to get into the same place were annoying. I will read the next in the series to see how the series develops.

This is a tidy start to a promising series. In An Irish bookshop Murder, the quaint and cosy community of Shamrock Cove is packed with quirky and fun characters whose adventures you'll be keen to follow. Mercy and Lizzie, are newcomers to the cove, following a shock inheritance and make solving this mystery light-hearted entertainment, making this perfect for reading while cosying up in your favourite comfy spot.

Thank you so much netgalley!
This book is so cute, a real cosy mystery. I audiobooked this and I really enjoyed the narrator and how well she changed up the accents. I loved the difference between the twins and their back stories. Mercy is such a nosy nelly! This book reminded me of a less disastrous version of Finlay Donovan!
I will 100% be picking up more from this author.

Five Cozy Mystery Stars

I'm super glad I'm getting in at the start of the Mercy McCarthy Mystery series! I am already looking forward to Death by the Book later this year!

Mercy (a mystery author) and her twin sister, Lizzie, have just found out that their grandfather left them his cottage...IN IRELAND! This is the perfect escape for the sisters as they're both mourning the loss of their mother and Lizzie has just also lost her fiance and his daughter. A new country, new home, new bookstore to run, it's all going to be great helping them move on and learn how to live life now. Just a couple minor murders to throw a wrench in those plans. First up is the judge, a man who infuriated the town at large with his bad moods. Unfortunately for Mercy the detective on the case has her in his sights for the murder. Why? Who even knows! Now Mercy needs to use all of her author research to find out who murdered the judge and why.

This book is the definition of Cozy Mystery. I enjoyed it from start to finish and cannot wait to read the next installment of the series. Lucy Connelly did a wonderful job on these characters and Kimberly Wetherell was perfect for bringing them to life through narration. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy a cozy mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture Audio, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this story.

A really cute cozy murder mystery story. Meet the McCarthy twins, Mercy and Lizzie, after a rough time, they relocate from America to Ireland where they’ve inherited their grandfathers cottage and bookshop.
Now would be a good time to tell you I’m literally manifesting the same fate for myself, without the murders please and thank you.

Did you ever love Murder She Wrote? Cabbot Cove. I did, and this gave me those same vibes. Mercy is also a writer, a mystery writer and is now in Shamrock Cove!!

I loved the sisters, I really enjoyed the story and the other characters. I’ll look forward to the next in the series.

The narration, I’m trying so hard to be polite here, I kind of wish the narrator had just stuck to narrating everyone in her own American accent, instead she’s had a mad gallop all throughout Ireland and I think she made a wee stop of in parts of Scotland to narrate the Irish characters, and the accents became so bad they were hilarious and added entirely to the fun of the book.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio via NetGalley for this ELC.

I requested this by accident, thinking it was part of a similarly named series with similar book cover art.

It didn’t take long for me to realize I goofed but since I look cozy mysteries I thought I’d settle in.

I simply can’t read this. The writing makes me itch with all its cliches and cardboard and cartoony characters and dialogue.

Thanks netgalley for my ALC.

A perfect cozy mystery. I am looking forward to the next installment of this series.
I especially enjoyed the heroine of the story and her relationship with her sister. I didn’t enjoy the wrap up of the mystery as much as I would have liked (the motive wasn’t strong enough to be plausible), but overall a great read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the audiobook.

Much thanks to Lucy Connelly, Bookouture Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great mystery! I really enjoyed this book, though I've lost count of how many cozies I've read with this same premise (X inherits a house/shop/castle/etc. in Ireland/Scotland from an unknown or estranged relative; they move in and, shit, someone's dead). Mercy and Lizzie were very endearing, and their new Irish neighbors were as well. Liam was adorable, especially at the end. I'm on board with the love interest, and Connelly did an excellent job balancing the emotional lows with the humorous highs.

What knocked a star off was Mercy's occupation as a writer. I've always felt it's cheating for an author to make their MC an author; it requires little research, the character's life and schedule are more flexible, and it's a convenient excuse for them to know random skills and information. Also they're successful, of course, so no money troubles. On top of that, though, Mercy seemed to constantly talk about being a writer, and it became incredibly annoying. She needed to write, she learned this because of writing, she learned that because of writing, she developed this habit because of writing, she developed that habit because of writing, she thinks like this because of writing, she eats like that because of writing, she talks like this because of writing, she does that because of writing. On and on. Toward the end I wanted to scream at her YOU'RE A WRITER, WE GET IT, SHUT UP ABOUT WRITING. It made her feel rather self-involved.

But other than that, it was a great book, and I look forward to the next in the series.

4.5⭐️This was just a delightful cozy mystery!

I am thankful to have gotten the audioARC for free from Netgalley and aBookouture Audio so I can leave my voluntary review.

Usually I listen to audio books at night and early morning but whilst doing a project today I turned this on to see how I would like the narration and next thing I knew, it was done!

I listened to it on 1.5x speed which for me was perfect although the regular recorded rate was fine. I enjoyed the narration by Kimberly Weatherell who seamlessly transitioned from an American accent to an Irish Brogue depending on the character.

This was a first book in a new series where a mystery novelist sticks her nose into. I appreciated that it wasn’t a romance straight off where the FMC doesn’t get all tangled up with the male detective but still leaves it open for that to happen.
While I figured out the culprit it wasnt glaringly obvious which was great.

So if you enjoy cozy mysteries this one is a definite hit!

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding for the genre! Will potentially circle back and read again as well as recommend it to others.

Unexpectedly, Mercy and her twin sister Lizzie have inherited a bookstore and home from an Irish Grandfather they never knew. This is perfect timing as Lizzie needed a fresh start and Mercy is an author that can write anywhere. They arrive in Shamrock Cove, the tiny Irish village by the sea and things don't go as planned.

One the first night at their welcome party, the town's Judge ends up dying. She found him grabbing his chest and she started CRP until paramedics arrived. His last words seem to accuse Mercy of murder.

Mercy and Lizzie work together to figure out who would have killed this neighbor and why. This is a tight knit community where everyone knows each other. Homes in the village are passed down to family members or by a lottery.

During their investigation clues are pointing towards the sisters but they have just arrived, with no motive to kill anyone. It doesn't help when someone else suddenly dies and Mercy is the one to find them, again.


I loved this book. It was fast paced and a great who-done-it! The different characters had so much depth I could picture everything. The sweet village, beautiful floral back gardens and old bookshop. I found myself being suspicious of everyone! Each person, being lovely, all had reasons to benefit from the Judge no longer being with them. The narrator did a great job. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.