Murder in an Irish Cottage

O’Connor’s exceptional fifth Irish Village mystery (after 2019’s Murder in an Irish Pub) takes Kildane, County Cork, garda Siobhán O’Sullivan and her fiancé, Det. Sgt. Macdara Flannery, to the remote village of Ballysiogdun. At the cottage of Ellen Delaney, Macdara’s aunt, they’re greeted by Ellen’s grown daughter, Jane, who says she returned home from a weekend in Dublin to find her mother dead. A broken window points to a break-in; other evidence suggests Ellen was poisoned and smothered. Siobhán and Macdara must work to gain the trust of the superstitious locals, who wanted Ellen’s cottage destroyed because it posed a danger being in the middle of a fairy path. O’Connor does a fine job depicting the complex relationship between the spunky Siobhán, who’s troubled by Jane’s failure to provide an alibi for her well-timed weekend away, and the reserved Macdara, who’s reluctant to acknowledge his cousin may have something to hide. Cozy readers will have a hard time putting this one down. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Mar.)