Review: Mystery at an Irish Wedding by L.C. Winters

Mystery at an Irish Wedding (Half Moon Bay Mysteries #1)
by L.C. Winters

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
“Wedding dresses, ex-fiancés, and a whole lot of murder—just another day in Half Moon Bay”

Therapist Clementine Moriarty thought her return to the whimsical seaside town of Half Moon Bay, nestled in cozy Donegal – would be a chance to reconnect with her roots, spend time at her parents’ charming little seaside art gallery and heal from heartbreak. But her homecoming is anything but peaceful when she stumbles upon an unwelcome surprise—her ex-fiancé, Greg, is getting married to her best friend, Charlotte, on the very beach where Clementine was supposed to say “I do.”

Through a series of unexpected twists and turns, what starts as a personal nightmare soon spirals into an intriguing mystery. An anonymous email had lured Clementine back home, but who sent it and why? As the wedding unfolds, tensions simmer, secrets surface, and Half Moon Bay’s picturesque façade begins to crack. When someone turns up dead with a series of baffling clues and puzzles, Clementine finds herself the role of unlikely detective as she becomes the prime suspect.

With the help of a heartwarming, blue-haired artist and her sharp intuition, Clementine must navigate a maze of jealous exes, local gossip, and buried betrayals to uncover the truth amid the charming and Whimsical backdrop of Donegal. But in a village where everyone has something to hide, will this quirky crime-solving team be able to unmask the killer before it’s too late?

Perfect for fans of small-town mysteries, vibrant characters, clever clues, and a touch of romance, Murder at an Irish Wedding will keep you guessing until the final page.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it. All opinions are my own.

I was so excited for this book after receiving the review request from the author and her mention of it having neurodivergent characters. So soon after I started reading. I struggled with it and so I set it aside for a bit, picked up another book and then came back to it. That time I was able to continue reading and enjoyed it, but the parts I struggled with were still there as well. Often with cozy mysteries I find it’s either the daily life scenes or the mystery I enjoy more and with this book it was definitely the mystery. I hadn’t expected that as I picked this one up for the characters, but the mystery was what kept me reading.

So let’s start with the mystery this book starts with the mystery quickly. Clem returns home to Half Moon Bat and finds out her ex-fiancé is getting married to her best friend on exactly that day. Clem confronts the couple and then the bride turns up dead later on. I didn’t quite like the part were Clem kept trying to convince Mason to work together, but then once they start working together it worked out really well and I liked reading about them together figuring this out.

The mystery has so many clues and hints. It kept me guessing and I felt it was difficult at times to remember everything as there were just so many little pieces that felt important or like they could be an important clue. And a lot of them were. I was convinced I had figured out who the murderer was and while I was correct in some ways, there was another twist and the murderer was someone else. I liked the reveal, but would’ve liked a bit more time for wrap up at the end as I there were a few things I hadn’t figured out like the why of sending the email to Clem and a few other things.

While the mystery was great there wasn’t as much focus on the characters as I had hoped. They were both interesting characters, but with the focus being on the mystery I felt I didn’t get to know the characters as much. With mystery series like these I do expect some of that to come throughout the series, but I still would’ve liked more in this book. At times I couldn’t really figure out why they acted a certain way or how they felt. I wanted more of their thoughts and feelings and see how they were doing. I wanted to know how Clem felt about being back home, what she was thinking about the future or even the mystery. The book is mostly told from Clem’s point of view with a few parts from Mason’s point of view and despite most of it being from Clem’s point of view I felt I got to know her about equally well as Mason with most of the characterization being done through dialogue. I hope there is more about the characters in future books.

The things I struggled the most with in this book was a bunch of smaller issues that added up. the pacing could feel kinda rushed at times with them constantly being on the go and solving the mystery. Scene transitions could feel too quick leaving me to figure out what had happened and were the characters were now. I felt like there was no time for the characters or the plot to breathe and I needed to put the book down if I wanted any time to process the mystery or what was going on. I just wanted a more quiet cozy moments. Like there is a fun set up with her parents running a gallery and a cafe, but I wanted to see more of that.

Besides that there also were so many weird punctuation and editing errors. Like the inverted commas for speech were sometimes missing or there was only one of them or they were there when someone wasn’t talking. There also were a few instances were the wrong word was used and in all of these cases it costs me more effort to figure out what was going on and what someone was saying or not. There also was some head hopping with the point of view switching to Mason in the middle of a scene and then back to Clem, this was very jarring the few times it happened. And often the full stop was after the inverted comma of speech, which just looked very odd the whole time I was reading the book as it’s always the other way around. And even some instances with an exclamation mark, inverted comma and then a full stop, it just looked odd and was distracting. Normally I don’t even spot typo’s or small editing errors, but this book had so many of them and the type of errors that were distracting to me and made it harder to read the book.

To summarize: I struggled a bit with this book at first, but decided to keep going and enjoyed it more later on. The mystery was really good with lots of clues and some interesting twists and turns. It kept me guessing and there was just so much going on and all these little clues I kept trying to remember as they all seemed relevant. I would’ve liked more daily life scenes and about the characters as the book is very focused on the mystery and I didn’t feel the characters got as much time to shine. There also weren’t many cozy moments were it felt like the characters could just breathe and relax, they were always on the go and it made the book feel a bit rushed and fast paced. I also wanted to get to know the characters better, but hopefully that happens more in future books. This book also had some weird punctuation and editing issues that were distracting and got me out of the story. Or I had to stop and figure out what someone said or didn’t as the punctuation marks weren’t correct. And sadly there were a lot of those instances. I enjoyed the book and the mystery enough to want to try the next book.

Edit: the authors are making another editing pass and changing some things based on my feedback, so some of my issues should be resolved.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.