In A Turn for the Bad by Sheila Connolly, American Maura Donovan is settling into her ownership of Sullivan’s Pub when tragedy hits her Irish town of Leap. A toddler boy was discovered on the beach, and his farmer father, John Tully, has disappeared. The guardai and the local Coast Guard scour the beach to look for John Tully without success. Then the body of a strange man turns up on the beach.
In a conversation with her employee Mick, the man clues Maura in to the fact that the area is popular among smugglers of many things from cigarettes to illegal drugs. They begin to wonder if perhaps John Tully might have gotten caught in the midst of a delivery of goods, but why has his body not been found? Could he still be alive? Maura does her own investigating and determines to do her part to try to find and rescue Tully, assuming him to be alive.
After being riveted by ther first two books in the County Cork Mystery series, I was disappointed in book three, An Early Wake, so I was pleased to find A Turn for the Bad to be highly enjoyable. It kept my attention strongly and drew me intensely to the story. The characters do not have much depth to them, but they are still fun to get to know.
Amy Rubinate performs the audio version of this book. She continues to do an excellent job of bringing the books in this series to life, helping the readers to experience the anxiety of everyone as they search for the missing John Tully.
I enjoyed listening to A Turn for the Bad, especially after my disappointment with the previous book in the series. It had a dramatic plot with strong personal connections, drawing the readers into the story. I give the book four stars.
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