The Body Falls by Andrea Carter Book Review

About the Book:

April in Florida and Benedicta (Ben) O’Keeffe is enjoying balmy temperatures during the last few days of a six month stint with a U.S. law firm. A week later, she returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. The town is abuzz with excitement, but it starts to rain, causing the cyclists to postpone the start of their event and stay overnight in the town. The rain doesn’t stop—it becomes relentless, torrential.

In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap, where a body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle. It is identified as Bob Jameson, a well-known charities boss and the organizer of the cycling event. Stunned, the local doctor finds evidence of a recent snakebite. Terrible weather persists and soon bridges are down and roads are impassable. Glendara is completely cut off and since there are no native snakes in Ireland, could there be a killer trapped in the community? With no help from the outside world, it’s left to Molloy—with Ben’s assistance—to find out who is responsible for Bob Jameson’s bizarre death.

My Review:

This is the fifth in a series but reads well on its own. A main feature of the novel is extreme rainfall. Rather than a forced situation, Carter says the location did have serious flooding a few years ago. She has created a sort of locked room situation when a murder occurs and the town is cut off by flooded roads and broken bridges. I do appreciate the setting of Inishowen.

Ben is a good heroine. I like her character. There is a bit of relationship drama in her life with her boyfriend but it takes a second seat to the murder and the goings on in the village. The plot moves at a consistent and methodical pace. There are no exciting suspenseful scenes, just Ben and others interact and find out information. The actual revelation of the villain was a bit anticlimactic.

This is a novel for readers who like a heroine deeply set in a community and who relies on her relationships with others to uncover the clues to solve the mystery.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

Andrea Carter grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal where she ran the most northerly solicitors' practice in the country. In 2006 she returned to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to writing crime novels. You can find out more at https://andreacarterbooks.com/.

Oceanview Publishing, 352 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)