Jeanne Reviews: Dead in Dublin by Catie Murphy

American ex-pat Megan Malone is loving her time as a limo driver in Ireland.   Sure, her employer Orla Keegan may not be the most generous person, but at least she’s renting Megan a decent place to live at a reasonable cost, something not too easy to find in Dublin these days. Megan has particularly enjoyed driving an American couple, Simon and Elizabeth Darr. Elizabeth is a travel and food blogger with an international following, so it’s a bit of a worldwide shock when she drops dead at the foot of the famous statue of Molly Malone, aka “the tart with the cart.”

It’s even more of a shock when it turns out that Elizabeth was poisoned.

I found this to be an enjoyable first in series book.  Ex-military Megan has some of the skills and nerve to be a good sleuth, but it’s her descriptions and observations about Ireland that made this a memorable book. The author has apparently relocated to the Emerald Isle, which lends a bit more authenticity to her assertions.  Megan is an outsider who has been in Ireland long enough to have some understanding of how things work, which makes her an admirable tour guide to both her limo clients and her readers.  Characters have some depth to them, and as is obvious from the cover, there are Jack Russell dogs to delight animal lovers. The plot is up-to-date, i.e. there are social media and technological aspects, but nothing too technical, and the plots are more complex than in some books.  (There’s a lot happening!) That said, I still have a question or two about part of the solution to Elizabeth’s murder.

But the overall appeal for me was in the way the author lets us glimpse modern Ireland and its people.  She avoided stereotypes and dialect, though she used the lilt in the phrasing.  The one quibble I had was that she referred to the police as “guards” rather than “gardai” and that may have been her editor’s choice but I’ve seen “gardai” used in other American cozies set in Ireland so it just seemed odd.

I also liked the way that Megan had made a real effort to fit in, which is one reason she seems to have a lot of Irish friends.  She’s interested in everything but not overawed; she’s American but doesn’t wear it on her sleeve. 

There are three books in the series so far, with another slated for 2023.

Dead in Dublin

Death on the Green

Death of an Irish Mummy