An Early Wake by Sheila Connolly

Item: An Early Wake
Rating: 5
Author: BaronessMom

Posted June 20, 2023 by BaronessMom in Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

An Early Wake

by Sheila Connolly

Series: County Cork #3
Series Rating:

Published by Berkley on February 3, 2015
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: Audible Audiobook, Audio CD, ebook, Kindle, Paperback
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Books-A-Million
Also in this series: Buried in a Bog, Cruel Winter , Scandal in Skibbereen, A Turn for the Bad, Tied Up with A Bow, The Lost Traveller, Fatal Roots

Pub owner Maura Donovan may have Irish kin, but she doesn’t seem to have the luck of the Irish. Who could have foreseen that bringing live music back to Sullivan’s Pub would lead to a dead musician?
Summer is ending in County Cork, Ireland, and with it the tourist season. Expat Maura Donovan is determined to keep Sullivan’s Pub in the black as the days grow shorter—but how? When she hears that the place was once a hot spot for Irish musicians who’d come play in the back room, she wonders if bringing back live music might be Sullivan’s salvation.
As word gets out, legendary musicians begin to appear at the pub, and the first impromptu jam session brings in scores of music lovers. But things hit a sour note when Maura finds a dead musician in the back room the next morning. With a slew of potential suspects, it’s going to take more than a pint and a good think to force a murderer to face the music.

An Early Wake by Sheila Connolly brings music back to Sullivan’s by way of Irish magic. At least, that’s how it feels.

Will Maura figure out what happened to Aidan before she worries Sullivan’s out of business?

In this third installment, we find Maura settling into County Cork more than she thought she would. A uni student shows up to discuss the music that was at Sullivan’s in the 1990s. Yes, to those younger, it’s ancient history, but to the patrons of Sullivan’s, it’s nice to reminisce about it.

Maura isn’t much for music, but if it’s good for the pub, then she’s on board. Especially when some of the musicians from Old Mick’s time show up to do an impromptu jam session, word travels like wildfire, and the next thing they know, the place is packed.

We have to add some mystery here so one of the musicians dies in the backroom, and the uni student has another reason for coming here. Throw in some drugs, beatdowns, a blossoming romance, and you have an excellent story.

Maura Donovan

Our sleuth, Maura, is a worry wart. Seriously, this woman picks at everything. But Maura gets up each day and heads to the pub no matter what thoughts kept her up all night.

I like Maura, and I know she’s had tremendous character growth, but she needs to get out of her head and live a little. I am glad that she has found her place in the world. She’s lucky to have the friends that she does. Also, Maura needs to figure out her heart before she hurts either of the men in her life.

Five Stars

My rating for An Early Wake by Sheila Connolly is five stars. The mystery, setting, and characters are fantastic, but my favorite part is the music, especially when Maura hears the magical sounds for the first time.

I highly recommend this series. Sheila Connolly was a magnificent author, and we all miss her.

County Cork Mysteries

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of An Early Wake by Sheila Connolly.

Until the next time,

About Sheila Connolly

Connolly was born in Rochester, New York, and later lived in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California, and Massachusetts. In 1972, she graduated with honors from Wellesley College, then earned a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Harvard University. When art history jobs proved elusive, she obtained an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. She worked as an art historian, a municipal financial advisor for U.S. cities and states, a non-profit fundraiser for institutions and two statewide political campaigns, and a professional genealogist. She included elements of all of these in her mysteries.

The Glassblowing Mystery series, written under the pen name Sarah Atwell, debuted in March 2008 with “Through a Glass, Deadly.” In the series, the protagonist, glassblower Em Dowell, manages her own glass shop and studio in Tucson, Arizona, and tries to find time to solve the occasional murder.

“Through a Glass, Deadly” was nominated for a national mystery award, the Agatha Award for Best First Book.

Connolly’s Orchard Mystery series opened with “One Bad Apple,” published in August 2008. Meg Corey inherits a drafty colonial house in western Massachusetts without even realizing it comes with an apple orchard. But since she’s been downsized out of her banking job in Boston, and the real estate market is so bad that she can’t sell the house, she decides to stay on in the small New England town and try to manage the orchard–if she can save it from developers. Her plan is nearly derailed when she finds the body of her ex-boyfriend stuffed in her septic tank.

Connolly’s Museum Mysteries began in October 2010 with “Fundraising the Dead”. Nell Pratt, development director for the prestigious Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society, is worried that the institution’s reputation will be threatened by the death of one of its key employees–whose body Nell found in the stacks. The police declare the death an accident, but Nell isn’t so sure, particularly when she finds information pointing in a different direction. Most recently, the author published Let’s Play Dead, set at a children’s museum based on the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A worker on an exhibit about a local children’s author is hurt by an electric shock, and then another worker is killed by a shock. Nell was present at the first incident, and she becomes involved in the inquiry into the second man’s death. the latest is Fire Engine Dead, about a fire at a warehouse housing the collections of a fire fighting museum.

Connolly was a member of Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime.

She was living in southeastern Massachusetts shortly before her death. She died on April 20, 2020, in Ireland.

(Info above from Wikipedia)

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