Simply Angela : Tuesday’s Tea and Tome: Bel, Book, and Scandal: A Belfast McGrath by Maggie McConnon

Bel McGrath tries her best to keep herself on the straight and narrow but she just has a taste for trouble. This time danger arrives in the form of a newspaper left behind by visitors to Shamrock Manor--and a photograph that jolts Bel out of the present and back into a dark chapter from her past. The person in the photo is Bel's best friend Amy Mitchell, long gone from Foster's Landing, at a commune in upstate New York shortly after her disappearance. The picture, and Bel's burning desire to find out what happened to Amy--and whether she may still be alive--is the catalyst for a story in which old secrets are revealed, little by little...and certain characters are shown to not be as genuine as Bel once thought.

Series: Belfast McGrath #3 | Publisher: St. Martin's Press | Genre: Contemporary Cozy Mystery | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4 Cups

So, I sort of jumped into this one at an odd spot—it’s the third book in the series and it happens to be the end of a mystery that’s arced across the series. Surprisingly, this one worked as a standalone.

Here’s what’s going on. When a potential client leaves behind a newspaper, Bel instantly recognizes Amy Mitchell, her best friend who has been missing and presumed dead since they were teens. Now Bel finds herself visiting an old commune in New York’s Hudson Valley and meeting a man who seems to be hiding more than he is willing to tell. As her search for Amy continues, Bel finds herself wading deeper and deeper into danger and questioning whether or not she wants to know the secret that drove Amy away.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one, especially since I started in such a weird place in the series but I was hooked from the first chapter. The entire zany McGrath clan just drew me in and the mystery kept me turning the page.

Bel was a rather interesting and quirky chef-turned-amateur-sleuth. She’s a bit all over the place as she tries to uncover the truth about Amy’s disappearance, keep her nosy family at bay, work as chef at her family’s business, and deal with dating drama. She’s more than a bit harried from being pulled in so many different directions but she’s determined to discover the truth about what happened that night.

Bel’s brothers added so much entertainment and drama to the mix and it was fun seeing which one was going to come up with something outrageous to do. Although out of her four brothers, I liked seeing her relationship with Cargan. She knew he would always have her back and I liked the way he supported her.

The mystery was a bit different from the ones I’ve read before in cozy mysteries and I liked the change of pace. I also liked that I wasn’t really sure of what the outcome would be. I had an inkling and I was partly right but this one played out nicely.

Like most cozies there’s a bit of romance—or rather romantic drama—for Bel. Like the mystery, the romantic drama played out in the previous books so rather than witnessing it, this book dealt more with the fallout and the figuring out what to do next. While I thought it was handled well, the ending was a bit vague.

There were a few bumps in the road with this one. Bel was occasionally a bit over the top, there was a part of the book where she went on about how her cooking was so amazing one bite would make a suspect confess all he knew. The second was how abrupt a character who was helping Bel investigate Amy’s disappearance dropped out of the story. She brought a lot to the story as both a new friend for Bel and a sleuthing partner so when she was pulled out of the book it felt a little uneven. Also, the fact a character was named Tweed Blazer was a bit annoying. I’m just not a fan of weirdly named characters. While I did have a few problems, they didn’t pull me from the book.

Overall, this one kept me on my toes. The mystery was solid and the McGrath family was a riot. While I probably should have read the previous books to get the full flavor of this one, it wasn’t necessary.

Seeing as Bel and her family are Irish—as were a few other characters—I paired this one with a nice cup of Irish Breakfast Tea from Twinings of London. It’s a nice full-bodied black tea that’s smooth. I like mine strong and plain and it suited this cozy mystery.