No Strangers Here

Irish Vet Mysteries, Book 1

By: Carlene O'Connor

Narrated by: Emily O'Mahony

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in Ireland’s striking, rugged countryside, USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor’s dark, atmospheric new crime fiction series combines the eerie atmosphere of Tana French and Louise Penny with the compulsively taut plotting of Dervla McTiernan and Lucy Foley, as an Irish veterinarian grapples with life, death, family dynamics, and the secrets at the heart of her small community…

On a rocky beach in the southwest of Ireland, the body of Jimmy O’Reilly, sixty-nine years old and dressed in a suit and his dancing shoes, is propped on a boulder, staring sightlessly out to sea. A cryptic message is spelled out next to the body with sixty-nine polished black stones and a discarded vial of deadly veterinarian medication lies nearby. Jimmy was a wealthy racehorse owner, known far and wide as The Dancing Man. In a town like Dingle, everyone knows a little something about everyone else. But dig a bit deeper, and there’s always much more to find. And when Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien is dispatched out of Killarney to lead the murder inquiry, he's determined to unearth every last buried secret.

Dimpna Wilde hasn’t been home in years. As picturesque as Dingle may be for tourists in search of their roots and the perfect jumper, to her it means family drama and personal complications. In fairness, Dublin hasn’t worked out quite as she hoped either. Faced with a triple bombshell—her mother rumored to be in a relationship with Jimmy, her father’s dementia is escalating, and her brother is avoiding her calls—Dimpna moves back to clear her family of suspicion.

Despite plenty of other suspects, the guards are crawling over the Wildes. But the horse business can be a brutal one, and as Dimpna becomes more involved with her old acquaintances and haunts, the depth of lingering grudges becomes clear. Theft, extortion, jealousy and greed. As Dimpna takes over the family practice, she's in a race with the detective inspector to uncover the dark, twisting truth, no matter how close to home it strikes…

©2022 Mary Carter (P)2022 Recorded Books

Dark, atmospheric, and engrossing

I’ve read a number of the author’s titles and this was a distinct turn from her previous series. I wasn’t sure at first but the mystery pulled me in. An excellent read for a chilly autumn day.

Took a while to warm up, but worth it

I really enjoyed this story once I got into it. I just finished the author’s Irish village series, which I sought out as a nice bit of fluff to listen to while knitting, cleaning, etc. This book was quite different to the other series — less “cozy” but still not overly dark or grizzly. It took a while to get used to the more subtle narration (the author does not have a terribly thick Irish accent as one reviewer stated, and it’s very easy to understand everything she says), but once I did I actually started to prefer it to the more caricature-like narrative in the village books. Will definitely listen to future books in this series.

Carlene's Wildest and Best Yet

I've listened to all of Carlene O'Connor Irish Village mysteries and this new series is far away the best. Her humor and the Joyce-like interior monologs are incredibly well done and with secret after secret, the story keeps moving and changing. Well done Carlene, fireworks and you've hit 10,000 steps!

Murder Mystery but make it Vet Themed

There’s murder, tarot, animals, and a good ending! I like everything this author writes and this one was had more mature themes. Less cozy.

Twisted and dark, a good mystery.

The story was slow to start, but it reels you in. I found myself staying up until all hours to get to the end. A good story for a blustery cold rainy day!

Great Story

I enjoyed this mystery by Carlene O’Connor. The story’s twist is not what I had expected . After hearing the narrator for the Irish Mysteries books this narrator was too soft spoken for a mystery. Though everything else was good. I’m thankful for the narrator’s Irish accent like in the other books. That makes the story even better.

Wow! Very different story!

I enjoyed this book. Good story line. Good characters. So different from O’Connor’s other series, but a good change. I hope for more of both stories.

A good mystery. A dry reading

I enjoyed the story. The mystery has a lot of twists and turns. My experience with Carlene O'Connor's work has been with the Irish Village Mystery Series, so I was expecting more humor in this novel. But it is a straight murder mystery. I also stopped the listen early on to double check on the narrator. I enjoy hearing the Irish lilt for narration of stories with Irish names and locations. This particular audible is really just a reading, with no male/female voices or other performance-type narration. I needed to set the playback speed up to 115% to avoid issues with unusually long pauses. That might be an editing issue and not the norm for the reader.

It’s ok

Not her usual fast paced mystery - lots of unnecessary veterinarian stuff that doesn’t add much to the story. But it’s the narrator that is truly awful. She reads like she’s reading instructions for a recipe - never changes the tone or pitch of her voice. I’m ready for another Irish village mystery.

Narrator Fail but Decent Story

I had to fight through this one due to the deadly flat narration. Honestly the worst I’ve ever experienced. The story had a big job to do to keep me interested so I offer a lot of credit to that. I finally bumped the speed up a bit to help overcome the depressed narrator—might work for you if you want to finish it…