Last book for Halloween bingo. Not much to say except that this book ended up aggravating me the whole time. The lead in the book, Maura, is nasty to pretty much everyone and sits around judging how small town the village of Leap is and how one of the villagers, a teenager named Rose, needs to do more with her life instead of working in a pub. Throw in a mystery of a young man who seems out to get Maura for no good reason and a body found in a bog, I was just ready to be done with this one. The book felt endless after a while and reading about cleaning, clothes, tea making, and other things in this book just made the overall flow painful. This is the first book in a series I have no intention of continuing. 

"Buried in a Bog" follows 25 year old Maura Donovan who returns to Ireland following the wish of her recently deceased grandmother. Maura was born and raised in Boston and after her grandmother's passing realizes she doesn't have anything going on in her own life. She plans on traveling to the village of Leap for just a week to honor her grandmother and return home. Instead, Maura ends up meeting a lot of people who tell her stories of her grandmother, her grandfather, and even her deceased father. She starts working in a local pub and wonders if she should stay. If that's not enough a dead body is found in a bog that may have some connections to those who live nearby. On top of that a mysterious young man seems hellbent on stalking and trying to scare Maura for some reason unknown to her.

So Maura was a piece of work. She herself didn't go to college and is working at bars in Boston, but she sure had time enough to look down upon everyone she meets. She doesn't like the fact that a young man near her age, Mick, is just working at the pub. She wonders why he hasn't moved away and even when he tells her he is there for his grandmother and to keep an eye on her she acts like people don't sometimes delays things to take care of elderly relatives. Maura has the same opinion about a teenager named Rose who has gotten her Leaving Certificate but has no interest in moving away and doing anything else. The character started to put my nose out of joint but it got worse when there's a throwaway line that Maura has about at least the Irish are better than how Americans act since they (Americans) just expect jobs to be given to them by the government along with money.

Moving on. Can't say much about the other characters because except for two of them, Maura is sitting around judging everyone. When she starts getting stalked how she talks to the police in Leap would have had her cursed out if she was a woman of color.

The writing was painful after a while. Connolly stays focused too much on describing every freaking thing that is happening and what Maura is eating, smelling, seeing. Everything became tedious after a while. Also she keeps going on and on about how she needs to get clothes and or wash the clothes she brought for a really long time. I think that's what I should have called the title of this review, "Everything Goes On For A Really Long Time." The flow was awful.

The setting of Leap could have worked if I didn't want to bludgeon the lead. 

The ending was a big whatever to me. It made zero freaking sense, but it's a way to keep the character there for the series. This is the second cozy mystery series of Connolly I have read and I swear she must say to herself that cozy mysteries equal unlikable female character cause she did the same thing in her Orchard series which caused me to stop reading that one after a while too. 

Good grief the main character Maura sucks. Her looking down her nose at a young girl working in a pub when it's apparent she doesn't have a degree, zero money, and no job to return to in Boston. First book in the series has Maura off to Ireland to fulfill her late grandmother's wish for her to say a prayer to her in a church where she grew up, Maura is in the village of Leap. A body in a bog has been found so don't know how or when Maura will get tied up in the mystery of things. 

I’m a sucker for small town mysteries and when you have a mysterious mansion at the center of it all, well, you’ve got my attention. And this was an enjoyable read, with a likable main character in Kate; she’s a level-headed and unflappable sleuth and romantic interest Josh made for a good sidekick and added a sprinkle of romance. I liked the plot, surrounding a remarkably well-preserved mansion built a century ago by the mysterious Henry Barton and a very unlikable local woman who is found dead on the front steps. The intrigue kept me turning pages, although I feel like the endless rehashing that happened in every chapter killed the pace a little; with a bit of editing, this book would be a lean, mean intrigue machine. As it is, I’m completely sucked into the whole Henry Barton mystery, so I will be back for the second book and can’t wait to watch Kate’s vision for the town evolve into a reality.

To start bluntly: this author's writing irritates me.  I've started and discarded two of her other series, because her MCs always come across belligerent and acerbic.  This series is sadly no different, but I keep sticking with them because she so perfectly captures all the ins and outs of running a museum (at least, it seems so to a reader who has never actually run a museum).  The stories are always interesting; enough to overcome my desire to throttle the MC.

Dead End Street, however, was not as good as the others.  It's aim is to tackle a concept, rather than a specific object or setting in history.  That concept is urban blight, neighbourhoods in decline, and neighbourhoods that have become urban war zones.  Lofty subject matter, and she handles it pretty well, I think.  Her approach from the standpoint of what role an historical society can play in rebuilding these neighbourhoods has a lot of merit.  Unfortunately, Nell is abrasive and almost unlikeable, and she kept saying her desire to help was white man's guilt.  Maybe her motivation is white man's guilt, but if so, it just makes her even less likeable - why can't she just want to participate in building up her city without the guilt?  Anyway, ignore me, it was just one more thing I found irritating.

These aren't typical mysteries; they seldom revolve around dead bodies, and when they do - as this one does - Nell doesn't investigate or figure much out.  Mostly it's about her being in the wrong place at the right time or vice versa, and putting facts together that make events clearer, although resolution usually comes of its own accord.

I say every time I read one of these books that I won't read any more of them, but then the next one comes out and I get sucked into wanting to spend time i the museum.  So - who knows?

Total pages:  297

$$:  $3.00