Execution in E

January 20, 2020
So stunning is the Irish village of Dunmullach that it has attracted the attention of beautiful and self-absorbed Sunny Markham, an American social media influencer and heiress, in Gordon’s charming fifth Gethsemane Brown mystery (after 2019’s Fatality in F). Having selected Dunmullach as the ideal location for her extravagant wedding, Sunny descends with her expensively groomed entourage for an Instagram photo shoot, which she hopes will entice hotels, couturiers, and the like to sponsor her nuptials. When a member of Sunny’s posse is found dead, hanging from Carrick Point lighthouse, no one really believes it was suicide. Then another one dies. Why here, and why now? Quick-witted Gethsemane, an American concert musician, and her detecting partner, the ghost of Eamon McCarthy, a composer who once lived in the cottage she now occupies, uncover a connection between the visitors and the village locals. The repartee between the two amateur sleuths is sprinkled with good-natured humor, and the plot is filled with well-defined and often obstreperous suspects. This is a fun, fast cozy.