I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Fourth in the series is a dangerous passage for a writer. The temptation is to let things get samey, or to overcomplicate things; seldom does one find the writer whose abilities include knowing what makes a series work for the long haul. I think we might have a winner in Author Andrea Carter.

Ben O'Keeffe is glad that Leah, her assistant, will have the very first wedding at Greysbridge. It's a fine old landed-gentry house that Abby and Ian Grey have brought back into their family after a profligate ancestor lost in a card game! What they needed was an event, and a locally beloved soul's wedding is perfect. Until, of course, it isn't...there are disasters piling up on the day, and the deaths of two seemingly unconnected men from different countries occur in such close time and physical proximity that the Garda gets involved.

Which means Ben's ex, Tom Molloy, returns to Inishowen. Which means her casual thing developing with new-to-Glendara Harry Dubois, the new G.P., is suddenly complicated. Which means that Ben's nosy neighbors will quickly be weighing in on which path she should choose...Phyllis the bookstore owner (who's also now a Reverend of some sect or another) and Iain the estate agent aren't likely not to share their ideas with her. Not to mention bestie/vet Maeve. Wouldn't be at all surprised if Guinness the cat doesn't weigh in soon.

What happens next is a bolt from the blue regarding her clients, the Greys...there are more secrets than just the ones we were made privy to in the last installment! And they get...intense. Add to the ordinary parent/child tensions within the Grey family the unusual way their son came to them, then top that off with a revelation or two about their business lives...that's enough for a book, but not for this book.

While the Greys are stewing, and their adopted son running, the issues surrounding the deaths of two people who are apparent strangers to each other are coming together with the odd little island community off Malin Head and directly across the North Atlantic from Greysbridge. There are so many things swirling in the waters between the locales that it becomes a bit wearing to keep track of them. And there are threads that get dropped...Harry Dubois vanishes early and reappears in Ben's thoughts and the investigation barely often enough to keep the name from requiring a bit of flipping to recall...but in the end, his presence and involvement are such worthwhile additions to the story that I'm inclined to be forgiving.

The problems I had with this read were mostly around the pace of the story. When Author Carter put all these pieces together, I think she underestimated how complex machinery needs time to spool up and find equilibrium. In this case, that meant a lot of scene-setting that wouldn't obviously pay off until later. The time we spend following Ben and Maeve around, then Ben and Tom around, is not badly spent. You won't necessarily think that as it happens, but I encourage you to sit with the situations you're seeing and let the slow accretion of facts do their work. Remember the way you learned to solve puzzles as a kid? One piece fits with another, then another after that, and finally there's a whole new pattern at the end. This story's about the best illustration of that truth as any I've read this year.

I don't know much about the Irish relationship to the UK's corner of it, or of Ireland's interest in Scottish independence, but they're clearly coming to a head as Brexit squashes the livelihoods of people too poor to matter to the Tories. And it's not really a surprise that the primary beneficiaries of the situation will be organized criminals, is it.

The actual solutions to all the crimes are plausible, and are just going to keep the local criminal classes thoroughly on the hop, so they're working to our advantage. While these books really can be read as stand-alones, since we're given more than enough information to follow along with who's who and what's what, I don't recommend it. I skipped (inadvertently) book two, Treacherous Strand, and after the spoilers for it in book three felt there was no need to or profit in my urge to go back. We have another year to wait for book five, The Body Falls, to come out.

Why does a year sound like such a long time.... ( )

This was an interesting read. It wasn't my usual type of mystery and I did feel a bit lost during parts of it, but it is the 4th book in a series.
This is a great mystery with an amateur sleuth and great atmosphere. This was about Solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keefe of Glendara who goes to her friend's wedding where murder occurs. It's also about her personal life and issues, which were the parts I found quite interesting. This story also made me want to go visit Ireland with how well written it was and atmospheric.
After how this installment of this series ended, I'm very interested to read what happens next with Ben and her personal life especially.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Oceanview Publishing for letting me read and review this nice cozy mystery read. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

In my experience in North America, small communities have no secrets. If you believe that the people of Greysbridge are no different, then this book does not hang together. I also had something of a problem figuring out where the hidden room is actually located. It seems to be on the ground floor. How could it remain hidden (and silent) on the ground floor, even if it has no windows? I want a drawing.

I received a digital review copy of "Murder at Greysbridge: Inishowen Mystery 4" by Andrea Carter from Oceanview Publishing through NetGalley.com. ( )

Classic complications in a modern manor house

“Murder at Greysbridge” is part of the “Inishowen Mystery” series, but as a new reader, I was immediately pulled into the story, and all I needed to know about the characters was part of the narrative. Readers quickly get to know the community through the first-person narrative of solicitor Benedicta (Ben) O’Keeffe. The previous year she assisted Ian and Abby Grey with their purchase of the Greysbridge Estate, now a small hotel. Ben is attending a wedding there, and it is a typical wedding, well, until it is not. Readers meet the bride and groom, wedding guests, relatives, house employees, and a couple of paying guests.

The story unfolds like an Agatha Christie “country manor tale” but with a modern twist. The Greysbridge estate is the star of the story, and the masterpiece-like atmosphere is detailed and complete. It is a classic setting complete with strange grounds and sculptures, but the grand staircase makes it a perfect venue for a wedding. There is something secretive about the mansion, of course, something dark and hidden from the world. Some houses are like that; bad things happened there, so bad things continue to happen there. And of course, there is an old library, a family burial plot, a rumor of a ghost, and that strange yet inaccessible bridge.

“Murder at Greysbridge” is filled with modern problems that evolve like classic complications. Readers wonder what else could possibly go wrong during this wedding, and then they find out. I was given a review copy of “Murder at Greysbridge” from Andrea Carter and Oceanview Publishing. It combines the atmosphere of a classic mystery with the tension of a modern thriller; it “bridges” the gap. ( )

Solicitor Ben O'Keefe is off to her office assistant's wedding at a country home turned into a boutique hotel. Ben did the legal work for the owners. She is planning to meet her new potential boyfriend there too.

When she and her friend Maeve arrive, neither is impressed with the building or the atmosphere. There's a strange bridge linking two parts of the house. There is also a ghost story attached. According to the story, a young woman starved to death and haunts the place. And Ben is given Lady Louisa's room.

The place is filled with guests for the wedding. Except there are two holdovers; one is a young pre-med student on a solo bike tour of the country; the other is a man who is enthusiastic about the family history and eager to have her movie producer son make a film of the story he has discovered. Also, the groom's family lives on a nearby island and are staying on their boats.

The wedding goes off well, but the reception is marred by the drowning death of the young pre-med student. Ben's significant other is a doctor who manages to pull him from the water but isn't able to get him breathing again.

When the police arrive, they are accompanied by Sergeant Tom Molloy who had a close relationship with Ben until he ghosted her. Now he's back and investigating the death which might fit into the case that he disappeared to investigate. Things escalate when the man intrigued with the family history is also found dead. He apparently died of poison.

As Ben and Molloy investigate, they learn a lot of family secrets about the former owners of the house and also about the island where the groom's relatives live. There was a lot of action and smaller mysteries surrounding the larger one of the poisoning deaths. This is the fourth book in a series and has quite a few characters I'm assuming were introduced in earlier books. However, it does stand alone well. ( )