Scandal in Skibbereen by Sheila Connolly

Item: Scandal in Skibbereen
Rating: 5
Author: BaronessMom

Posted June 17, 2023 by BaronessMom in Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

Scandal in Skibbereen

by Sheila Connolly

Series: County Cork #2
Series Rating:

Published by Berkley on February 4, 2014
Setting: Ireland
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 294
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 , An Early Wake, A Turn for the Bad, Tied Up with A Bow, The Lost Traveller, Fatal Roots

As the new owner of Sullivan’s Pub in County Cork, Ireland, Maura Donovan gets an earful of all the village gossip. But uncovering the truth about some local rumors may close her down for good…
Bostonian Maura is beginning to feel settled in her new Irish home, just in time for summer tourist season to bring fresh business to her pub. But the first traveler to arrive is thirsty for more than just a pint of Guinness. Althea Hathaway is hot on the trail of a long-lost Van Dyck painting.
Maura agrees to help Althea meet with the residents at the local manor house, the most likely location of the missing art. But when the manor’s gardener is found murdered, Maura wonders what Althea’s real motives are. Now, to solve the secret of the lost portrait and catch a killer, Maura will have to practice her Irish gift of gab and hunt down some local history—before someone else is out of the picture…

Scandal in Skibbereen by Sheila Connolly is a reminder that not everyone is in a hurry and we should all take the time to breathe.

Will Maura figure out who killed Seamus?

Maura Donovan

In this second installment, we find our sleuth better settled but unwilling to commit to staying. Maura fits in well, and the people there respect her, except Jimmy. But he is just a grumpy, half-empty kind of guy. Maura also hasn’t decided what she will do with the pub. Will she add food? Will she clean it up more? Basically, how and what will she do to put her stamp on the place? She is not in a hurry.

Yet, she has made more friends and is doing better in Ireland than in Boston. So, she may stay. Maura also meets Gillian, an artist who spends her winters in Dublin and summers here.

The Mysteries

Althea Melville shows up at the pub, looking for someone to help her find an old painting of the local gentry. She has no idea who but has a more miniature painting to which the larger one should look similar. Billy assists Maura and Althea with some local history, and Maura recommends a hotel in Skibbereen for Althea. That night a gardener at the manor house is killed. Are they connected? It seems like they should be, but then there is no evidence that they are.

These ladies uncover some local history by going around and speaking with the citizens that have been there for eons. It is humbling to listen to their stories. I enjoyed following Maura around as she learned about the local history. It’s incredible how much people knew but wouldn’t say, as it wasn’t their story to tell.

Five Stars

My rating for Scandal in Skibbereen by Sheila Connolly is five stars. I read the story when it came out and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. I will be rereading the beginning of the series and finishing the later books that I have fallen behind with. The author is no longer with us, and I am now ready to complete the series. I highly recommend it if you are interested in the American sleuth in Ireland cozy mystery.

County Cork Mysteries

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Scandal in Skibbereen 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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