MURDER AT AN IRISH SESSION

An Irish music-and-matchmaking festival goes horribly wrong.

Ireland’s self-proclaimed “King of Matchmaking,” Liam Noone, combines his love for traditional Irish music with his love for, well, love by sponsoring an event at which he offers to pair up all the single musicians in the countryside town of Kilbane. Fiddlers, pipers, harpists, drummers, and even the odd double bass player come around hoping to be partnered while they entertain the townspeople at a series of impromptu pick-up musical performances held in pubs or outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s Liam’s love of money that gets him in the end. He’s dispatched by a giant cupid’s bow on display in the town square that someone uses to launch the bow of a bass into his chest. It seems that Liam’s been blackmailing his clients, one of whom may have gotten tired of paying him off. Solving the murder of someone who’s tormented tons of victims is an old chestnut, but the husband-and-wife team of garda detective sergeants Siobhán O’Sullivan and Macdara Flannery enliven the familiar formula, peppering their investigation with spousal banter and excited anticipation of their twins’ impending birth. A quirky cast of musicians, spats and squabbles among the would-be lovers, and a pint-sized trickster who cons townsfolk into paying for “free” archery lessons are all part of the fun as this shaggy dog story ambles to its conclusion.

A good-humored lesson in the perils of biting the hand that feeds you.