I’m being generous here with this rating. I’ll tell you why: I laughed out loud at this novel so many times it deserved *something* for that in the long run. I do love a good laugh. 2 stars for this laughable claptrap rambling—being funny is it’s highlight, and I think that even sometimes it meant to be funny.

I am not going to go on about the importance of accuracy, only to say make up your mind if we use pounds or euros in Ireland (euros since 2002, punts before then), or pants (giggle, *pants*) for trousers. The other Americanisms throughout the book might not be so glaringly obvious to the non-Irish readers, so I’ll just put it down to editing as no one else seems to have noticed. I understand how tricky editing for consistency can be…

The little scattered inaccuracies weren’t the only thing laughably stripping the credibility from this story; the writing was … well, have you ever read a Nancy Drew book? They’re written for young readers: short, easy to digest sentences, not a whole lot of academic vocabulary, perfect for children under 10. This novel used that same halting simple sentence style, breaking up the flow of any complex thought (not much, to be fair), with not a compound nor complex (nor run-on, on the positive) sentence for kilometres of paper, until I wondered a few times about the actual marketed target age. (No. It’s written for adults.)

The main character, whom we follow throughout, is represented as with all characters in the novel in third person omniscient voice and POV. Siobhán spends pages speaking in paragraphs of questions, which do nothing to help her solve the mystery. She does the opposite of detective work (at least, I hope): she suspects everyone, ignores the evidence, and runs around accusing the whole town. Burns bridges like a pyro, offends everyone who’s cared for her all her life, derails higher education as pretentious, alienates allies, and still manages to get the two youngest most beautiful men in town going after her. Yes. I know. It’s fiction. Charming. (Giggle). Author injects a fair amount of language (nothing too offensive) for ratings—to raise the age bar of readership, sure—and smatters the story with Irish stereotypes to generate authenticity of setting, but it all comes across as very amateurish writing.

Can’t criticise too much though, cos—well done: It’s published, circulating, receiving decent ratings from the gen-pop, and we’ll, I bought it (it was worth the €4 I paid). The author must have done something right.