First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #6 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea.  The idea is to share the first paragraph or two of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of a recent purchase.  Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly is a cozy mystery set in a small Irish village, and the first book in the brand-new A County Cork Mystery series.

 

Published by Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin Group

February 5, 2013

Chapter 1

"Maura Donovan checked her watch again.  If she had it right, she had been traveling for over fourteen hours; she wasn't going to reset it for the right time zone until she got where she was going, which she hoped would be any minute now.  First the red-eye flight from Boston to Dublin; the cheapest she could find; then a bus from Dublin to Cork, then another, slower bus from Cork to Leap, a flyspeck on the map on the south coast of Ireland.  But she was finding that in Ireland nobody ever hurried, especially on the local bus.  The creaking vehicle would pull over at a location with no obvious markings, and people miraculously appeared.  They greeted the driver by name; they greeted each other as well.  Her they nodded at, wary of a stranger in their midst.

She tried to smile politely in return, but she was exhausted.  She didn't know where she was or what she was doing.  She was on this rattletrap bus only because Gran had asked her to make the trip--just before she died, worn down from half a century of scrabbling to make a living and keep a roof over her granddaughter's head in South Boston.  Now that she thought about it, Gran had probably been planning this trip for her for quite a while.  She had insisted that Maura get a passport, and not just any passport, but an Irish one, which was possible only because Gran had filed for an Irish Certificate of Foreign Birth for her when she was a child.  What else had Gran not told her?"

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?  I am a cozy mystery fan and enjoy the chance to start a new series soon after publication of the first novel.  This series is particularly appealing to me because of the setting.  I have traveled to Dublin and Cork several times to sightsee and to visit family, so any chance I get to read about the area is a welcome experience.

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  Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page of their current reads and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

 

Here's my teaser from Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly:

 

"After a couple of miles of silence, Maura realized Mick hadn't said anything.  She was the visitor, the guest.  Where was the Irish charm she'd heard about?  Wasn't he supposed to be entertaining her?"  --page 25

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #6 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without express written consent.