Customer Reviews

The Irish Manor House Murder: A Torrey Tunet Mystery

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This is the book for you if you like mysteries and you're looking for a diversion. Torrey Tunet is back in Ireland working on a series of children's books, but gets distracted as she tries to help her friend who is accused of murdering her grandfather. While the plot is interesting, there is no cozy feel to this book. Torrie's character is rather one-dimensional and unappealing. There are no really likable characters in the book to inspire the reader to want to continue this series. However, as a mystery, it held my interest. If that's what you're looking for, you'll like this book.

Torrey Tunet has retreated to a small Irish village to work on her writing. When her best friend Rowena is accused of murdering Rowena's grandfather, Torrey knows she's got to do more than write. Certainly the police aren't going to solve the crime--they have their suspect.

Dicey Deere does an excellent job providing motives, characters, and a convincing Irish village atmosphere. Better yet, she hooks the reader and keeps him/her coming for more with plot twists. Just when you think you have the big picture, Deere changes things up and you realize there is even more going on here.

THE IRISH MANOR HOUSE MURDER is the second in the series of Torrey Tunet mysteries that began with THE IRISH COTTAGE MURDER. And this one's another page turner, just like the first. There are lots of plot twists again. This series has climbed to the top five of my favorites. But I did NOT like the fact that the lover from the last book had already been replaced with no explanation. I like to think of series characters having lives that continue when I'm not reading the books. The sense of time here seems distorted. I really love the subtle stuff -- esp. Torrey's knowlege of language and words (because she's a translator) and her instinct for seeing beyond what she sees. These remind me of Kinsey Millhone (high praise indeed).

This book is a perfect rainy-day distraction with all kinds of red herrings and false leads. I have to say to me it didn't feel like being in Ireland except superficially, but it was fun nevertheless. I did have a problem with the author's strange ideas regarding anatomy, however. Very early in the book a horse is killed by a small length if knitting needle inserted into its thigh. Not a poisoned knitting needle, mind you. HOW exactly was that supposed to kill the horse? I mean, I can see where that would make the horse throw its rider and jump around a bit, but kill it? Ah, no.

This is poorly written, implausible even by the loose standards of the genre, and well... the Publishers' Weekly review says it clearly. However, it also seems to express American fantasies about Ireland, right down to the obligatory introduction of the IRA, just to make sure we know what country this story is supposed to be about.

Though she was not always a respectable person, Torrey Tunet is now a law abiding, highly regarded citizen. She has traveled the world as a translator who fluently speaks over a dozen languages. The Children's Language Institute hires her to write a three language series of books aimed at children. Torrey works out of her grandmother's cottage near the Irish town of Ballynagh where she even solved a murder case (see THE IRISH COTTAGE MURDER).

Inspector O'Hare never forgave Torrey for showing him up last year. He likes her even less when she lies about her good friend Rowena Keagen trying to kill her own grandfather, Dr. Ashenden. Rowena spends the night in jail, but is released when the physician denies the story. However, he later dies in what seems like a horse-riding accident. A gypsy swears she has insider information on the accident and will sell to the highest bidder, but she dies in Torrey's bed before she can reveal anything. O'Hare would love to pin the crime on Rowena, thus forcing Torrey to begin sleuthing anew to prove her innocence.

This novel is a rich and fascinating tale that gives readers a glimpse into the lives of residents of a remote small Irish village. The delightful charcaters are a motley crew of ordinary but eccentric people keeping secrets that date back to long before many have been born. Torrey has adapted well to her new lifestyle as the locals have accepted her as one of them. If THE IRISH MANOR HOUSE MURDER is any indication of Dicey Deere's talent, this series can expect a long, popular run.

Harriet Klausner

For Pai

This is a who-dounit and why was the doctor killed? Sure, it was staged to appear a simple horse riding accident, but who bought the knitting needles just because they were sharp, and for what reason where they bought? I thought at first they were for the purpose of self-abortion.

Rowena discovers sordid secrets her grandfather, the esteemed doctor, has keep hidden for fifty years. Was the gypsy involved in this dasdardly deed, or did she die as a consequence of what she did know of the doctor's past? Seems there was another illegitimate Ashenden offspring some time in the past.

What I had trouble figuring out was why the grandson wanted Rowena charged with the murder. She thought she might inherit the whole estate. And this house looks like the palaces in England, though the green countryside clearly shows Ireland in its glory. I always liked to think that my mother was Irish with her blue eyes and light brown hair, but she too died young -- before I could ask her. There were many Irish and Scots here in the early days of the state being formed. Her mother, Bessie Lynch, was a mountain woman but had the temper of the Irish.

Dicey Deere lives in New York but twice a year spends some time in Ireland. Reminds me of my old friend Bob Wrisley who loved to go to Guatemala (where things were cheaper) during the summer months, then return to his home in an old church building there in Pulaski. He was as eccentric as any Irish commoner anyday.