I loved the bones of Mags Munroe. She was such an authentic character. This, the first book in a trilogy, follows Mags through her days in the small town of Ballycarrick, Ireland. The reader is privy to her thoughts, her worries, and her delightful sense of humour.

Mags is forty-eight years old and lives with her beloved husband, Kieran, who works as a roofer, and her two daughters whom she adores. She has an antagonistic relationship with her mother-in-law versus a loving and close relationship with her own mother. In her late forties, Mags in experiencing perimenopause symptoms, much to her chagrin and embarrassment. She is a funny, kind, and very smart woman.

When things in Ballycarrick go from mundane to very serious indeed, Mags is tested professionally and personally. One of the local community of Travellers is murdered and Mags was the first on scene. We see her facing the challenges of her home and work with intelligence and humour.

“We’re all the same, dealing with the small stuff because the big stuff is too terrifying.”

The Travellers and their lifestyle are featured prominently in the story. The innate prejudice of the ‘settled’ residents against the Travellers is made abundantly evident – even within the Gardai ranks. Mags works to ease tensions between the Travellers and the town which is often a challenging task.

The tiny town of Ballycarrick was typical in that everyone knew everyone else and it abounded with nosy but caring neighbours. A place rife with gossip.

This book was a perfect melding of police procedural and women’s fiction. I absolutely devoured this novel and eagerly anticipate reading the rest of the Mags Munroe trilogy. Highly recommended!

I read this title via my Kindle Unlimited subscription. All opinions are my own.ASIN: B09QVSK7HM –  ISBN: 9781915790019 – 214 pages

The Mags Munroe trilogy

Jean Grainger is a USA Today bestselling author from Cork, Ireland. She writes engaging and intriguing Irish historical fiction as well as heart-warming contemporary novels frequently found on the Amazon bestseller lists. Her style has been compared to the late great Maeve Binchy, of whom she was a huge fan.

Before writing she was a tour guide of her beloved Ireland, a history lecturer at a university and a teacher at a secondary school. (She also tried selling things but the less said about that the better).

She loved all of those careers but has finally opted for spending most of every day in pyjamas making things up, surrounded by empty tea cups and crumbs.

She lives in a two hundred year old Irish stone cottage in county Cork, is married to a lovely fella altogether, has four magnificent children, and two micro-dogs named Scrappy and Scoobi who are cute but clueless.

Connect with Jean Grainger via her Website, Facebook and/or Instagram.