MURDER AT AN IRISH CASTLE

Brannigan debuts a new series coupling the beauties of Ireland with murder.

When Rayne McGrath, Rodeo Drive bridal designer, awakens on her 30th birthday, she expects a perfect day. Instead, she arrives at her store to find both it and her bank account cleaned out and her partner/boyfriend nowhere to be found. On top of that, her Uncle Nevin dies in a tractor accident at McGrath Castle, the family home in Ireland, and his lawyer requests her presence at the reading of the will. She’s greeted at the airport by Ciara Smith, who sports a chip on her shoulder, perhaps because she’s Nevin’s illegitimate daughter. The cousins' relationship doesn’t improve when the lawyer tells them that Nevin’s left McGrath to Rayne with a whole lot of strings attached. Rayne doesn’t want to stay for a year working to improve the estate, but if she doesn’t, Ciara will get nothing and the village the castle supports won’t survive. Rayne makes an effort to get on better with Ciara, who knows how things work, while she tries to get her bridal business going using the castle as a studio to make the dresses she’s already promised customers. Ciara’s conviction that Nevin was murdered turns out to be correct. As she makes more friends and enemies, Rayne hides the fact that she’s broke and dependent on a loan from her actress mother to keep the place afloat while she dabbles in sleuthing.

The strong characters and clever efforts to save the castle will leave you eagerly awaiting the next installment.