December 1, 2023
The Dublin Whiskey Festival attracts numerous competitors and at least one killer. The first casualty is Angus McConal, a boxer whose sponsorship of Fighting Chance Whiskey comes to a sudden end when he's found dead with his head in a punch bowl. The discovery in the dead man's pocket of the recipe for Harbourmaster Whiskey, a competitor launched by retired Sligo harbormaster Rabbie Lynch and movie star Niamh O'Sullivan, tilts the suspicions of the Garda S�och�na in their direction. As chauffeur Megan Malone, whose earlier brushes with homicide make her feel like the heroine of Murder, She Drove, casts worried glances at Rabbie, a second cousin she considers an uncle, the Gardai arrest Ramon Sanchez, head of security for Megan's frequent client, wealthy Carmen de la Fuente, whose Midnight Sunrise Whiskey is also in the hunt. But that does nothing to stop the flow of casualties. After Danny Keane, the creator of Keane Edge Whiskey, keels over dead at a whiskey tasting, Jelena Kowal, Megan's girlfriend, abruptly moves out because she doesn't want to be involved with the Murder Driver. Megan's convinced that one of the surviving contestants is eliminating the others, but the death of Angus' sports manager, Erin Ryan, who wasn't even involved in the competition, makes her wonder whether the motive really involves the battle of the spirits. Eventually she cracks the case by approaching a minor character and blurting out, "Did you kill Erin Ryan?" The dramatic instantaneous reaction is a lot more satisfying than the rest of the scattershot mystery, whose plot is mostly driven by the accumulation of corpses. Best enjoyed after two or three quick shots of whiskey.
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