In Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connelly, Maura Donovan goes to Leap, Ireland to the birthplace of her Gran to fulfill her Gran’s dying wish. Finding letters from her Gran’s best friend, Bridget Nolan, Maura writes to the elderly lady to inform her about the death and ask about visiting when she goes to County Cork, Ireland. Upon arriving in Ireland, Maura gets settled in and visits Bridget, where she learns more about her Gran’s younger days than she ever knew. Upon trying to figure out the stick shift from the opposite side of the road, Maura coasts to a stop in front of police officer Sean Murphy, who tells Maura that a body has been found inside a local bog. It could have been there one year or 100 years.
Going into the local pub, Sullivan’s Pub, Maura sees Rose Sweeney, the young girl whose father, Jimmy, is a manager in the pub, frantically trying to serve a packed building. With experience as a bartender in Boston, Maura jumps in to help and finds herself with a job while the courts try to sort out ownership of the pub after the recent death of owner Old Mick. Then Maura finds a letter addressed to Old Mick from a man in Australia trying to locate his family history in Ireland. His mention of an uncle who disappeared in the 1930s makes Maura wonder about the man in the bog. But that gets put on the back burner when the police locate a second body in as many days when Bart Hayes, a frequenter of Sullivan’s Pub, gets killed shortly after using the ATM in a local town.
After someone tries to run Maura off the road, she becomes much more invested in the case. Connecting with officer Sean Murphy, whom Maura keeps running into, she gets involved in both the mystery of the body in the bog and the more recent mystery of the man murdered by the ATM.
Buried in a Bog was a fascinating book that drew me into the plot and life of the book immensely. The plot does a great job of tying together the past and the present. It also ties the mystery to the location in Ireland. We gain insight into Irish history and its influence on the present, as well as the plot of the book. Ireland actually becomes its own separate character in the book, and we become immersed in the story and location.
Amy Rubinate performs the audio edition of this book. I enjoyed the job she does with this book, making it fun and interesting. She performs the Irish accents of the residents effectively. I am not as sure about her Boston accent. As a native Californian, I have little exposure to true Boston accents, but I got the feeling that the words especially associated with the Bostonian accent, such as car, were given this accent without much attention to the other words. But I have no expertise upon which to base this sense. Otherwise, I appreciated the fun portrayal of the book and thought this a strong performance.
I really enjoyed Buried in a Bog, with its strong cultural ties to Ireland and clever plot. I learned some new Irish words and enjoyed the whole book. I can’t wait to get to listen tili the next book. I give this book five stars.
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