Sunday, March 21, 2021

Death of an Irish Diva

 This is the 3rd book in the Cumberland Creek series by Mollie Cox Bryan.   I started this series because it is based around my other passion, scrapbooking.   I enjoy the books and the way they intermix the scrapbooking into the storylines.  All 3 have had a substory involving a scrapbook/memory album that plays a role in learning more about a character- a victim, a suspect etc.  

This particular cozy just didn't thrill me for some reason.  I think it was a combination of the necessity to remember past storyline components and also the writing.  This book seemed to really jump around to me and it wasn't always easy to tell where in time the actions was at the moment.  Also, the flow between character points of view felt forced at times, almost like one abruptly left off and the other began without any real transition.  

The second piece of the book that I didn't care for was the fact you needed to recall much of past events.   There is a bit of a recurring storyline in the book which often happens in series.  For some reason though this one felt like you needed to remember too much of the past storyline without actually catching the reader up.  Eventually I remembered enough and the story filled in some pieces but it was confusing until that happened.

 I think this series may be better read closer together rather than spaced apart which is often how I read my cozy mysteries.   I guess I better read the other books I have from the library sooner rather than later.


Death of an Irish DivaDeath of an Irish Diva by Mollie Cox Bryan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book wasn't my favorite cozy I've read this year. The storyline is a good mystery but the issue is much of it is a carryover from the previous books in the series. I have read them but don't remember all of the details. This plot seemed to require a substantial amount of recall to make the story flow. I think this series might be best read in order in a consecutive process rather than over time. I also found the story to feel as though it was jumping around quite a bit. I wasn't always sure how much time had elapsed between the previous scenes and the current one. The only real indication was the weekly crop meetings the friends had. The book did a nice job of intertwining scrapbooking terms and ideas into the story without being too distracting. I enjoyed how the different books have had storylines including scrapbooks that have been previously created that fit into the mystery even if only peripherally.
I will continue to read this series especially now that I realize it might be better to read them closer together.

View all my reviews


  

Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  

Possible prompts

I will decide as the year goes along which prompts I use it for on several challenges since it meets multiple criteria within the challenge.

  1. Library Love  #LibraryLoveChallenge  Book #31
  2. Literary Escapes  #LiteraryEscapes   VA
  3. Finishing the Series   #FinishingTheSeries2021  Cumberland Creek #3
  4. Color Coded #9 Read a book a word/image that implies color
  5. Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2021   Book #39
  6. Back List Reader  #Backlistreader  Book #44
  7. Calendar of Crime  #CalendarOfCrime2021   
  8. Cozy Mysteries   #20 protagonist has your dream occupation
  9. Cruisin thru Cozies  #3 Crafty 1st choice
  10. Cloak & Dagger  #CloakDaggerChal  Book #31
  11. Craving for Cozies  Book #26
  12. PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #7. A book where the main character works at your current or dream job
  13. Around the Year in 52 Books #51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name
  14. The Unofficial Magnus Archives Challenge  #TMARC21  #20. Flame: involves elemental powers-  earthquake
  15. Bookworm  #22.) Read a book that takes place in Spring
  16. Pick your Poison #6-2 A book about hippies
  17. Medical Examiner Challenge  1 Toe Tags
  18. Beachcomber Challenge  
    • Crime Scenes 
      • Row 3
        • Bar, store, restaurant
    • Weapons
      • Row 5
        • Stocking, pantyhose, belt, scarf, tie
    • Detectives- Annie/
    • Victims- Emily MacGlashen
  19. Six Shooter Challenge  Target # 56 Shot #1
  20. 52 books in 52 weeks  #33 lace


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