This December in Kilbane, the entire O'Sullivan brood has gone off to West Cork to spend the holidays with brother James' fiancée Elise's family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. When the O'Sullivans learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern--until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall. With the extended family suspected in his murder, it's up to Siobhán to ensure the guilty party faces the music.

Listed as a cozy, I found it was more realistic than many cozies and had a pretty good mystery with a lot of suspects, which is sometimes hard to find in Christmas themed mysteries. The characters were mostly believable. I particularly liked Siobhan. She was a good detective as well as a good surrogate parent to her 5 siblings since her parents died. There was a good dose of Christmas sprinkled throughout to give me that holiday feeling. I plan to look for others in this series. ( )

I listened to the audiobook while walking and knitting during the pandemic and loved the charming Irish brogue of the reader. Even though it’s modern times, it’s a simpler life.

This time Siobhan and her brother and sisters visit the family of James’ fiancé for a Christmas celebration while MacDarra is spending his holiday with his mother. Elise’s grandfather is a famous musician and shortly after the O’Sullivan’s arrive, he’s found dead . . . from a fall or murder. Siobhan, is out of her jurisdiction, but can’t stop herself from investigating suspicious circumstances. When the local garda has prejudice against one of the locals, MacDarra hears the concern in her voice during a phone call and comes to help. Love how MacDarra, though her superior on the force calls her boss. ( )

This sixth book in Carlene O'Connor's, "An Irish Village Mystery" series, is as charming a mystery as they get. Ms. O'Connor weaves the old Irish folk ways into her current day Irish tales. This time it's an extended-family holiday gathering and the O'Sullivan clan is making a holiday of it. That is until one of the family members winds up dead under an orchestral harp. Even on vacation, Garda Siobhán O'Sullivan can't seem to help herself and has soon insinuated into helping on the investigation.

What adds to the fun of this book are all the blatant holiday puns sprinkled throughout. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing humorous about murder or death, but poke fun at the human condition, add a few puns and you have a few hours of delightful escapism.

The writing is good. The scene settings are rich with generous description. The dialogue among O'Sullivan siblings is spirited yet full of love. There's a long list of potential murder suspects which eventually gets whittled down and the perpetrator unveiled just at the peak of tension. All in all, this was a most enjoyable cozy mystery and a perfect holiday read. ( )

I have only read one of the other books in this series but really enjoy it, This had very good characters. ( )

Siobhan and her siblings are off to spend the Christmas holiday in another small village, where they will be meeting the family of Elise, the fiancée of eldest brother James. But things go terribly wrong when Elise's grandfather, a famous conductor, is found dead at the site of his upcoming concert. Is it an accident or murder? And if it's murder, is it someone from the music world or one of his own family members?

This is book 6 I believe in a series. While the entry bar is pretty low (aka, you could read this book without reading the preceding ones and not be confused), I'd recommend reading them in order. However, if you just really want a light cozy Christmas mystery, this will hit the spot and you can jump right into the series here.

This book started out promising by moving Siobhan to a new location (there can only be so many murders in the same small village) with a new cast of characters (besides her own siblings). I must admit keep track of the new characters was a little tricky as the murder victim had been married three times with various children and grandchildren resulting from these unions. Some of the children and grandchildren were pretty much the same age and everyone was referred to by the first names only (no "Dads" or "Grandpa" or "Uncle") so it was hard remembering all the relationships at first. Eventually that took root though and the family dynamics were interesting. This also provided opportunity for various red herrings.

Inevitably, Macdara gets involved and ends up heading the case (apparently, jurisdiction can be thrown out the window if the first person assigned to the case messes up....). To be honest, it doesn't seem that either he or Siobhan really do all that much investigating; it's mostly that they pay attention and listen to the family and orchestra members when they are all thrown together. The mystery is resolved in a way that was rather unsatisfactory -- while some of the back story behind the motive was interesting and a bit surprising, the actual motive was weak ... as was the explanation for who kept trying to ram Siobhan's car off the road. So, the story ended on more of a fizzle than a bang, but as I said above, it was a decent enough cozy read for the holidays. I'm likely to continue on with the series when the next book comes out in February. ( )