Mountains Wild (Maggie D'arcy Mysteries, 1)

Excellent mystery! I didn't see the twists coming at all!

Review here!



Out on June 23rd!

Note: I listened to this as an audiobook. The memories don’t stop no matter how much time goes by. Maggie’s cousin Erin disappeared twenty+ years ago and not knowing what happened to her forged Maggie’s path to become a detective. Maggie left her dreams behind in Ireland where it all began. At first Erin’s disappearance didn’t feel like a big deal because she had a habit of running off. However, the book really starts when Maggie gets a call saying that they found something of her cousins along with some remains. Maggie is thrown back in time as she once again sets off to find the answers about her cousin that weren’t known before. I found it difficult to follow the story off/on with the changing timelines because it didn’t always make sense. I did listen to it via audiobook so maybe that was part of the problem. When I read books, I have an easier time following them because I can go back to mark something I missed. I have not found a way to do that with audio. However, I will say the narrator did a wonderful job with the changing of their voice and the accents. I think that is what kept me most engaged in the story. I’m not sure whose story I was more interested in, Maggie and Connor or what happened to her cousin Erin. Something about knowing Maggie’s past and how it tied to Erin and ultimately to Ireland and Connor made me root for her. I felt sad for the character of Erin, but with her being gone from the beginning of the book and only appearing in memory I felt no deep attachment to her. She was just a character connected to the case Maggie was working on. Same with the non-essential characters in Ireland. If anything, those characters are the reason I enjoyed Maggie so much. I believe in being honest and although secrets were a big part of this book whenever something was revealed it just made me roll my eyes. That’s how I feel about the ending to this book. I’m glad both Erin’s case and the connecting case were solved, but the reveal just was a cop out. Sure, it made sense at least in Erin’s case, but considering it felt like it was wavering from the line of fiction I struggled with it. I’ll be honest I did NOT care about the past between Brian and Maggie at all. I’m glad she got Lily out of it, but otherwise it was boring, and I was rooting for her and Connor the whole time. I understand as the first book, the author wanted to give the reader background and to be sure the connections were made, but there were times when there was too much background and not enough story. It made me lose focus while listening. The only time the background description worked was with the setting. I enjoyed listening to the narrator and the author talk about the setting. I’ve never been to Ireland, but I felt like I was truly there and could envision what the characters were seeing and doing. I will read more about this character because I genuinely enjoyed her story even with the unlikable or unnecessary parts. I’m not really sure who I would recommend this book to though, so I’ll have to think about that.