Many a Twist
by Sheila Connolly
Series: County Cork #6
Series Rating:
Published by Crooked Lane on January 9th 2018
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 330
Format: Kindle
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Book Depository
Also in this series: Buried in a Bog, Cruel Winter , Scandal in Skibbereen, An Early Wake, A Turn for the Bad, Tied Up with A Bow, The Lost Traveller, Fatal Roots
Pub owner Maura Donovan hasn’t seen her mother for over twenty years, so when she suddenly shows up in Maura’s pub, Maura’s not sure what to expect. Her mother has moved back home and has taken a position working with the new owners of the Crann Mor hotel just outside Skibbereen. Creating a new lift for herself was working out fine—until her new boss is found dead in the gardens, dumped down the hillside behind the hotel.
Now, Maura must leave no stone unturned to clear her mother’s name and rebuild their fragmented relationship. However, in County Cork, things are rarely as they seem. Longtime residents, including the employees of Maura’s pub and the deceased hotel owner, have dark, bottled-up family secrets that must never be uncorked. Worse, someone is willing to kill to keep them that way.
Maura Donovan tests the bonds of love and family in Many a Twist, the charming and atmospheric sixth County Cork mystery from New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly.
Surprise reunions, good or bad?
Many A Twist by Sheila Connolly is delightful. There were many surprises and changes for the crew at Sullivan’s Pub.
Since Many A Twist is the sixth book in the series, I won’t go into any background. However, I will say these are stand-alone books, but if you read them in order it makes the back story flow better.
I truly like this series; Maura, Billy, Bridget, Mick, Inspector Detective Hurly, Sean, Rose, and Seamus all feel like friends when I am reading one of the County Cork books. It isn’t all about murder, and that is what makes it so great. You get to know the characters and the many connections of their families, past and present.
In this installment, we get to meet Maura’s long lost mother. Helen hasn’t had anything to do with Maura for years. However, with a little nudging, Maura seems willing to give her mom a chance. But before she can truly do that, she has a list of items that need to be taken care of, such as:
- Figure out if the murder was a murder or an accident
- Help Gillian and Harry get their new house together
- Figure out Mick
- Avoid the new Sergeant in the county
- Figure out how to advertise the pub’s music online
- Find summer help
- Get to know her mother (last but only for now)
One of my all-time favorite characters
Maura has always been one of my favorite characters. She always has so much to do, yet she figures out what is happening by asking questions and being courteous. Maura has stamina, spunk, and integrity. But she is also extremely likable, and most people feel at ease around her.
Community
I think what I love the most about this series is the community. The way they all pull together. Yes, it centers on the pub, its employees, and the patrons, but it is so believable and something lacking in our current time here in America. Oh, and the mystery was good. The clues all flowed. Ms. Connolly can really spin a tale.
Five Stars
My rating for Many A Twist by Sheila Connolly is five stars. I enjoy returning to County Cork to see what everyone is up to. If you haven’t read this series, I highly recommend it.
County Cork Mysteries
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Many A Twist 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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