Irish Milkshake Murder

by Carlene O'Connor, Peggy Ehrhart, Liz Ireland

Overview

An Irish holiday anthology of cozy mysteries featuring a trio of today’s top cozy mystery authors that will make other cozy anthologies green with envy.

IRISH MILKSHAKE MURDER by CARLENE O’CONNOR
In advance of their St. Patrick’s Day wedding, Tara Meehan and Danny O’Donnell are off to the Aran Islands with their bridesmaids and groomsmen for a joint hen and stag party. The weekend kicks off with the ferry trip to Inis Mór, as the passengers enjoy boozy milkshakes on board and entertainment from a pair of famous Irish-dancing twin brothers. But faster than Tara can say “Oh, Danny Boy,” a murder shamrocks the boat as someone’s spiked shake turns out to be their final round. Stuck in a rural island cottage, while a storm rages outside, Tara must find the Celtic killer before her luck runs out . . .

MURDER MOST IRISH by PEGGY EHRHART
St. Patrick’s Day is drawing near in Arborville, New Jersey and the folks at Hyler's Luncheonette are getting into the holiday spirit with a new, limited-time, Irish-themed menu item--a festive green milkshake appropriately named, “The Leprechaun.” It’s a hit, until a patron is felled by one of the frothy concoctions during a sheep parade through the town. Now, it’s up to Pamela Paterson and her Knit & Nibble knitting club pal, Bettina Fraser, to catch a murderer and put a stop to the shear madness . . .
 
MRS. CLAUS AND THE LUCKLESS LEPRECHAUN by LIZ IRELAND
Spring in Santaland means two things: the elves have more leisure time and iceball season is in full swing! To celebrate, April Claus’s friend, Claire, whips up some minty milkshakes for her bustling ice cream shop, Santaland Scoop. But when the St. Paddy’s promotion makes one elf the target of a decidedly unlucky strike, Mrs. Claus and her friends must figure out if the attack was a failed hit job, a crime of passion, or an extremely unfortunate accident . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496745057
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	12/26/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	7,812
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor comes from a long line of Irish storytellers. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland filled with tales and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places across the pond she’s wandered, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork. Carlene currently divides her time between New York and the Emerald Isle.
Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor who lives in Leonia, New Jersey, where she writes mysteries and plays blues guitar. She holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Illinois and taught writing and literature at Queens College, CUNY, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was a tenured full professor. Her short stories have appeared in Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Crime and Suspense, Flashing in the Gutters, Spinetingler, Crime Scene: New Jersey 2, and Murder New York Style. A longtime member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, Peggy served on the board of MWA New York as head of the Mentor Committee. She was president of Sisters in Crime NY/TriState from 2013 to 2015. Peggy regularly attends mystery-writing conferences and participates in conference panels and also gives talks on mystery fiction at libraries in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Liz Ireland is the author of many works of women's fiction, romance, and mystery. She also writes under the names Elizabeth Bass and Liz Freeland. Like her character April Claus, Liz spends too much time in concert bands. Originally from the United States, she now lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. She’s currently working on the next Mrs. Claus mystery.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Irish Milkshake Murder

“An unconventional St. Patrick’s Day treat may satisfy cozy fans who like their murder sweet.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

10/01/2023

In this compendium of cozy novellas, three authors observe St. Patrick's Day with green milkshakes that have a little extra something in them. Tara Meehan, the amateur sleuth in Carlene O'Connor's "Home to Ireland" mysteries, returns in Irish Milkshake Murder, in which Tara is a reluctant participant in her own hen party, for which she, her fiancé, and four friends head to the Aran Islands on a chartered ferry. Twin Irish dancers tag along, and one ends up dead after drinking a boozy milkshake. In Peggy Ehrhart's Murder Most Irish (another of her "Knit and Nibble Mysteries") Pamela Paterson, a member of the Knit and Nibble Knitting Club, sees a man collapse after drinking a green milkshake. Lastly, Mrs. Claus hunts for a villain in Liz Ireland's Mrs. Claus and the Luckless Leprechaun, a new installment in her "Mrs. Claus" series. The elves are preparing for the first Saint Patrick's Day fair in Christmastown, which includes an iceball game. It is rough play, as an injured participant is found after the game, with a bump on his head and holding a milkshake cup. VERDICT Libraries looking for cozy St. Patrick's Day mysteries might want to add this volume to a holiday mystery collection. Fans of the three authors will enjoy the returns of their favorite amateur sleuths.—Lesa Holstine

Library Journal

2023-10-21
Three novellas offer sweet but sometimes lethal ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

What do Galway, Ireland; Arborville, New Jersey; and the North Pole have in common? Why, they all mark the name day of Ireland’s patron saint by serving up frosty milkshakes for revelers to savor. In O’Connor’s title story, these revelers are traveling to an island off Ireland’s western coast to celebrate Tara Meehan’s upcoming wedding to Danny O’Donnell, so the milkshakes have real booze in them and everyone’s already pretty sloshed when Noel Carrigan, one of the twins hitching a ride on the bridal party’s ferry, takes a swig of his milkshake and keels over dead. In Ehrhart’s “Murder Most Irish,” the deadly milkshake is served up at Hyler’s, a Jersey diner, but after a couple of hefty gulps, quiet, middle-aged Lionel Dunes ends up just as dead as Noel, leaving fellow diners Bettina Fraser and Pamela Peterson to solve his murder. Santaland is the setting for the third contribution, Ireland’s “Mrs. Claus and the Luckless Leprechaun.” The story follows April Claus, Santa’s Oregonian spouse, who’s been importing some of her favorite American holidays. The suspect shake is provided by April’s good friend Claire, owner of the local ice cream shop, and the victim is Crumble Woolly, injured star of the Twinklers elf iceball team. Crumble doesn’t die, but news of the tainted shake makes all the other elves shun Claire’s shop, so it’s up to April to put things right.

An unconventional St. Patrick’s Day treat may satisfy cozy fans who like their murder sweet.

Kirkus Reviews