IRISH MILKSHAKE MURDER

Three novellas offer sweet but sometimes lethal ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

What do Galway, Ireland; Arborville, New Jersey; and the North Pole have in common? Why, they all mark the name day of Ireland’s patron saint by serving up frosty milkshakes for revelers to savor. In O’Connor’s title story, these revelers are traveling to an island off Ireland’s western coast to celebrate Tara Meehan’s upcoming wedding to Danny O’Donnell, so the milkshakes have real booze in them and everyone’s already pretty sloshed when Noel Carrigan, one of the twins hitching a ride on the bridal party’s ferry, takes a swig of his milkshake and keels over dead. In Ehrhart’s “Murder Most Irish,” the deadly milkshake is served up at Hyler’s, a Jersey diner, but after a couple of hefty gulps, quiet, middle-aged Lionel Dunes ends up just as dead as Noel, leaving fellow diners Bettina Fraser and Pamela Peterson to solve his murder. Santaland is the setting for the third contribution, Ireland’s “Mrs. Claus and the Luckless Leprechaun.” The story follows April Claus, Santa’s Oregonian spouse, who’s been importing some of her favorite American holidays. The suspect shake is provided by April’s good friend Claire, owner of the local ice cream shop, and the victim is Crumble Woolly, injured star of the Twinklers elf iceball team. Crumble doesn’t die, but news of the tainted shake makes all the other elves shun Claire’s shop, so it’s up to April to put things right.

An unconventional St. Patrick’s Day treat may satisfy cozy fans who like their murder sweet.