Murder at an Irish Castle

Irish Castle Mystery, Book 1

Rodeo Drive bridalwear designer Rayne McGrath expected her 30th birthday to start with a power lunch and end with champagne, lobster, and a diamond engagement ring from her fiancé. Instead, flat-broke and busted, she’s on a plane to Ireland, where she discovers that she’s inherited a run-down family castle.

Uncle Nevin’s will contains a few caveats—for example, if Rayne doesn’t turn McGrath Castle around within a year, the entire village will be financially destroyed. With the fate of the town in her hands and rumors that Rayne’s uncle’s death wasn’t actually an accident, she can’t possibly go back to her old life in L.A.

As the devastating truth about her uncle dawns on Rayne, it’s not just her reputation that’s on the line—it’s her life. Featuring a sharp and endearing protagonist, a colorful and quirky locale, and twists and turns befitting an old Irish village, the first in Ellie Brannigan’s mystery series transports listeners to a milieu as romantic as it is deadly.

©2023 Ellie Brannigan (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

An education about castles and castles life.

Young american female down on her luck , jilted by her boyfriend and robbed by him , inherits a castle in ireland owned by her uncle , her father's brother. She doesn't understand why it was given to her. And not his illegitimate daughter who he recognized and lived with, but in the will, it says that she's a smart businesswoman, but his daughter understands how to run the castle, the women begin to understand each other, there's a lot of questioning and the American understands that many people in the town depend on the things the castle does. There's also a great financial difference in that the people who live in the castle and within the castle do not have a lot of money of their own, everything they need is provided, whereas the American woman has to earn all of her money in order to have a place. Live and money in her pocket.It was a very interesting book , five star.

Slow, with horrible Irish accents

I couldn’t finish it. I wanted to throw my phone out the car window. It took hours for this plot to progress at all.

Potential Not Fillfilled

This story and some of the characters had great potential for being engaging and entertaining but the author seemed disorganized. Rayne was supposed to be a brilliant entrepreneur, yet she did not have a written partnership agreement with her boyfriend or keep track of her finances.

Rayne's mother is an actress on a successful TV series, yet after more than 2 decades of full-time prime time employment, she has little savings or investments. Evidently poor financial planning runs in the family. And FYI, true Christian faith is more about compassion and generosity than not swearing.

When Rayne arrives in Ireland for her uncle's funeral, she finds that his castle/manor property employs a full-time cook, maid, and butler in addition to farm workers and not surprisingly is on the brink of bankruptcy. Why did the uncle need multiple domestic employees and not more maintenance staff?

Last but not least, Rayne's cousin is miserable and annoying, mad at the world and blaming Rayne for her unhappiness. The most appealing character was the maid who worked hard while dreaming of a career in fashion.

The author showed talent but really needed a better editor who could have helped make the plot and characters more believable.

Interesting plot even more interesting story. 

I always wonder what drives a writer to write certain things. Listening to this particular storyline I find it interesting how they jumped from one scene another. The transition from the initial climax to the next scene was somewhat rushed. But maybe that’s what people do in real life. I have to say that I did enjoy this. There were moments when I felt like I was in the room with the main characters and wanted to give advice. There were times when I wanted to shout out at someone telling them to shut up or go in another room or just wait where you are. Overall, it was really well written. The only thing that threw me off was the transition from one city to another. I felt like it was rushed. It could have been more planned. But I’ve never been in that situation myself so I won’t judge the writer. I don’t have any money so I don’t know what it’s like to just drop everything and run. So hopefully the next book will be a little bit more smoother as far as transition. But overall I do recommend listening to this book. 

Delightful new series!

Such a fun story and great characters! This book had all the elements of a great cozy mystery. I’m looking forward to the next book.