The Wild Mountain Thyme by Kathryn Scarborough
Release Date: January 31, 2018
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Pages: 320
Source: book provided by the author for review
There’s a serial killer murdering Irish-American tourists all over Ireland. Jim O’Flannery of the Boston Globe and Megan Kennedy of the Irish Times, are teamed up to report on the killings. They want to work together, but also to stay clear of each other emotionally; there was A LOT of trouble with the opposite sex in the past. But, Jim’s guardian angel appears, as a leprechaun, to pester and cajole Jim into getting involved with Megan. Jim can see Seamus, Megan can’t.
Jim and Megan trail the murderer to the west coast of Ireland, piecing together his motivation and where he may strike next.
An attempt is made on their lives, and only Jim’s quick wits saves the two. Megan disappears. Has the killer kidnapped her? Can Jim, with Seamus’s help, save her from mortal danger?
Review: The Wild Mountain Thyme is more of a romantic suspense with some Irish magic thrown in. The longer prologue set the stage for what the story would be about. Jim and Megan are both newspaper reporters. He works in Boston and she works in Dublin, Ireland. They are assigned to work on a story together in Ireland where a serial killer is on the loose murdering tourists who are male and Irish- American. Seamus, Jim’s guardian angel, takes on the persona of a leprechaun to make Jim believe in him and his magic, but shows himself to Megan too. Family was important in the telling of the story.
Given the premise of the story there was often a feeling of playfulness especially with Seamus and the other angels involved. There was at times a hint of anxiety. The dreams were a nice touch and I enjoyed Megan and Jim’s visit to the Abbey as well as Jim’s connection with his grandmother. I loved the descriptions of the land, the city, the clothing, the apartments and rooms and took away some of the flavor of Ireland. The identity of the serial killer was too easy to solve but I liked the way he was portrayed since there was a realism to his methods. The story is choppy at times and doesn’t fill in all the details needed to tell the story since we fast forwarded too quickly. The characters seemed wishy-washy in their beliefs or their actions and weren’t fleshed out enough. There’s a happily ever after that didn’t go far enough for me for closure. An epilogue would have been nice since there seems to be more story to tell.
Kathryn Scarborough is a new to me author and I may give another of her romances a try hoping for a better flow to the story along with closure.
Favorite Quote: “May the road rise up before you, may the wind be always at your back, and may you be in Heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”
