An Irish Village Mystery Bundle, Books 1-3

By: Carlene O'Connor

Narrated by: Caroline Lennon

Length: 29 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

The first three books in the Irish Village Mystery series are included in this edition. 

In Murder in an Irish Village (book 1), 22-year-old Siobhán O’Sullivan runs her family’s bistro in the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland. One morning, they find a man at a table with a pair of scissors protruding from his chest - and now it’s up to feisty redheaded Siobhán to solve the crime and save her beloved brood. 

In Murder at an Irish Wedding (book 2), Siobhán and her five siblings have their plates full catering a celebrity wedding. But the celebratory mood suddenly turns sober when the best man is found murdered in the woods. 

In Murder in an Irish Churchyard (book 3), Siobhán has accepted her calling and has decided to join the Garda Síochána. But her first case brings Macdara Flannery back into her life....

©2016, 2017, 2018 Carlene O'Connor (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Your Disdain of Americans is Showing

Wow! I read a review that noted the anti American slant of this book and thought it was a hit of an exaggeration but soon into the book I could sense that the author had quite a disdainful attitude towards Americans so much so that she dedicates this particular story to it. Though I really have enjoyed this series this far, I am loathe to make this author any richer by using my hard earned US dollars. This author has issues. The performance was lovely.

I couldn’t finish it

If the writer doesn’t have a thesaurus I’m happy to donate one. If the characters “said” something one more time I was going to lose it. Back it goes, because on a dialogue rich story hearing “she said” repeatedly was exhausting.

Enjoyable

I really enjoyed these books. The first two were pretty predictable but I still enjoyed them. The third one she didn’t follow the same pattern so that was nice. I felt like they were Hallmark mysteries.

Not sure where the other reviewer get American hate. I did not feel like the author was bashing Americans.

Unlistenable American Accents

The narrator does a lovely job with two of the three books, but as sometimes happens with British or Irish narrators, she is completely unable to even approximate American accents or voices. Every American character has a shrieking, unpleasant voice that is almost impossible to listen to -- and there is no relationship between what a character is saying at any moment and the tone or sound of his or her voice.

Books in Bundle “out of orderl

Agree with Robert Kinsella review. Although I already bought book one Irish Village which made me continue the series. The bundle was a good deal so I purchased. Don’t fix it please. I purchased Irish Pub and filled the 1-5 gap. So this bundle although out of order works for me. I just wish you knew when book 3 and book 2 began. Chapter numbers should have started over again. Irish Wedding chapter 1. Irish Churchyard chapter 1.

Ugh.

Drivel. Formulaic stories, lazy, repetitive writing, annoying lead character. Worst of all, mistakes in continuity. The only reason I got as far as I did was that the narrator’s voice was a nice soothing Irish backdrop while I was doing other things.

A bit judgemental maybe

I have to agree with the "too many 'saids' " and, clearly, as another review hints, this author is mistaken in her apparent belief that all Americans must be the worst that the media portrays. I just spent a few weeks in the wonderful island of Ireland and found their country and their people to be beautiful.

Ejoyable

Overall good..some funny spots. Little predictable and over the top explanation in places. Some of the character voices got on my nerves and a bit over dramatic in places. As an American I hope the dislike by the Irish is mostly fiction, as I would love to visit their beautiful country one day.

Great Narration!

This was my first time hearing of this author. I enjoyed the mysteries and the back story of the family members. I'll admit to a little disappointment when the main female character was upset with her friends over a man that hadn't made her any commitments. It went against the strong characteristics that she displayed in books 1 and 2. Americans are negatively portrayed in all three books, but especially in book 3. However, disdain for us is pretty much standard in many books written outside of the US. We figure prominently in a lot of books as we are often on the minds of people in other countries. Even Agatha Christie often disparaged us in many of her books. As an American, I don't take offense. The books are good mysteries, and I heartily recommend them.

You really messed this one up

I read the reviews before I bought this bundle and clearly you made a mess of it. So I bought the first and fourth books separately and figured out where the books began and ended in this bundle.
And now you’ve corrected the issue, which means I have two copies of book one and none of book five. Not a happy camper.
Performance is good and storied are fine but this is really unacceptable.

Not Bad, But Beware - it's all in the wrong order

At 29 hours for 1 credit, this 3-in-1 bundle is good value. It's really well read and the stories are engaging if at times, very convoluted.

My complaint is that the 3 volumes are not presented in order, nor are they distinguishable from each other. The 3 books are presented in your library as a continuous list of chapters. However, you will start with volume 3, then volume 1 will follow and finally you will hear volume 2. This does not matter in terms of each murder mystery, as they are stand-alone tales. But it does mess up the constant thread of the relationship between the 2 main characters. There is no way, looking at the list of chapters from 1 - 102, that you can tell where one book ends and another begins.

Very irritating.

Not in order!

The stories and performance are great - no complaints with the books themselves. However, I bought this bundle and the order of the stories is out of sync and that really threw me off. In the first story the main character is engaged and the next story, they haven’t been together very long. It’s a small thing but annoying none the less.

The other thing is that there are no markers to show you where one book ends and the other begins. I would have liked to have read these in order really.

Not As Described

As other reviews have mentioned the books aren't in order, they aren't even the first three books in the series! Chapter 1-33 murder in an Irish cottage; 34 - 68 murder at an Irish wedding;
69 - end murder in an Irish church yard.

I felt that you could hear the writers ability at storytelling improve as the series progressed.....it was unfortunate that the first book here was book 5, which I really enjoyed, and you then stepped back to book 2 and 3, which definitely sounded like they were written by a less accomplished writer.

not as advertised but still a good craic

this collection actually has books 5, 2 and 3 for some reason. still worth listening too, but if i had realised from the start, I'd have skipped through the chapters and started with the second book and read the first book (or the 5th) 3rd. confused? you will be.

Really hard read.

Persevered with the first book. Second book was going the same way not bothering with the third book. Found it boring trying to follow the thread.

Really enjoyed these stories

Great story telling and brilliant plots absolutely loved the Irishishness of it all . Looking forward to the next one 👍

Very enjoyable

Made me giggle at the Irishisms and the curry chips, though the accents are off I still really enjoyed the books

Fantastic Book Series

I have been listening to Audible solidly over the last few years during COVID. I have listened to over 160 books. This book series came up as a recommendation, and I'm glad it did. I is now one of my top favourites, Caroline Lennon is absolutely brilliant as the narrator her wonderful reading is very enjoyable, I binged the first three books and about to start book four. I bought the first three books in a bundle which is money very well spent. Carlene O'Connor is my new favourite author. My family on my mum's side are from Limerick. So the Irish setting is near and dear to my heart. The characters are great and well written with Caroline's narration it's a perfect match. I look forward to hearing the rest of the books. I love the family dynamics of all the siblings they are hilarious.