Murder at the Wedding

Modern Midwife Mysteries, Book 1

De: Christine Knapp

Narrado por: Erin deWard

Birth, death, mayhem, and murder . . .

Maeve O'Reilly Kensington loves her job as a nurse-midwife at Creighton Memorial Hospital in the quintessential New England seaside town of Langford. Nothing could bring her more pleasure than helping women usher new life into the world . . . except possibly having a child of her own with her husband, Will. In the meantime, she's happy to celebrate the families of those she treats, and content to support her husband in his newly formed catering business.

However when Creighton Memorial's Chief Obstetrician suddenly drops dead at his daughter's extravagant wedding reception, catered by Will, Maeve's two worlds collide in the worst possible way. Suddenly murder is on the menu, and Maeve is desperate to help her husband and find out who killed the doctor.

With the help of her wealthy, acerbic sister Meg and quick-witted Boston Irish mother, Maeve sets out to solve a murder and clear her husband's name. Can she stay one step ahead of the killer? Or will they strike again . . . this time closer to home?

©2022 Christine Knapp (P)2023 Tantor

Could not put this book down!

Thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. It kept me guessing until the very end. The narration brought the characters to life. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

Incredible listen with a riveting conclusion but no resolution for maeves getting pregnant 😓😓

𝑭𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅!! 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🥳🥳🥳

Spellbinding, immersive, nail-bighter-of-a-book

4.5 STARS. In MURDER AT THE WEDDING, author Christine Knapp captures the readers’ attention early on and holds us spellbound by creating rich, realistic scenes in which readers can immerse themselves. And how refreshing it is to have a cozy mystery that features a married main character.

“Certified nurse midwives are registered nurses who have completed a graduate-level midwifery program and have passed a national certification exam.” – chapter two introduction

Other than the obvious, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from a series called Modern Midwife Mysteries. Each chapter of MURDER AT THE WEDDING started with a factoid about midwifery or a pregnancy-related topic before going into the story. This is an interesting device to incorporate and a great way to inform readers about the midwifery angle. Author Christine Knapp doesn’t hold back on using proper terminology and situations, which may be uncomfortable for some readers. Additionally, some heavy topics are addressed with the main character, midwife Maeve Kensington, as well as her patients, and this could trigger some readers.

Fortunately, the heavier bits of MURDER AT THE WEDDING are balanced with lighter and humorous ones – not to mention the intensely suspenseful parts that keep us on the edge of our seats. It’s an odd mélange of sub-plot ingredients that together create quite an appealing mystery meal. We see midwifery up close and personal, but care to peek into the lifestyles of the rich or the lives and struggles of a caterer? How about the triumphs and heartaches of pregnancy? Or the secrets of the seemingly upstanding? Knapp’s got us covered.

MURDER AT THE WEDDING has a huge cast of characters, which is always hard for me to manage. Perhaps some will show up in future books? I certainly hope so, especially the main character’s mom, Mary Margaret Callahan O’Reilly, who is a show-stealing hoot of a gal every time she appears. I suspected who was the killer and wasn’t wrong; however, coming up with the motive, and watching the mystery (and that character) unravel was delightful, and those chapters showcase some of Knapp’s blissfully cleanly-edited best writing.

I mostly read this with my ears, but I floated between both the audiobook and the eBook, and I’m glad I did the latter, or I would have missed out! At the end of both formats, readers get a Sneak Peek of book two in the series, Murder on the Widow’s Walk, but at the end of the print book, there are five recipes (that are mentioned in the story) and a chance to get a free bonus eBook. Score!

ABOUT THE NARRATION: Narrator Erin deWard is terrific, though her pace was a bit too slow for me, so I listened at 1.25x speed. Whether a character is male or female, haughty or humble, deWard’s performance is on point. She voices each person so that they sound unique, and as mentioned already, she takes the character of Maeve’s Irish mom to the next level. Until I listened to MURDER AT THE WEDDING, I didn’t realize that ‘midwifery’ had two acceptable pronunciations, so thanks to deWard for the lesson, too. The second and third books in this series are also available as audiobooks and deWard returns as narrator. I’d listen again without hesitation.

After all the nail biting and nerve-wracking action in MURDER AT THE WEDDING, I appreciated the sweet, heartwarming ending that leaves readers hopeful and hankering for the next installment. There are so many characters and threads, future installments in the series can take any number of enticing directions to entertain us. I can’t wait to return to Maeve’s world again, and binge-readers, rejoice! There are already four more books in this series. Stay tuned.

not for me

I couldn't finish this book. Between the narrator's flat voice and the uninspired plot, I couldn't maintain interest in the characters.