The 11:05 Murders by Brian O'Hare is volume two in a two-part series called the Inspector Sheehan Mysteries. The book has also gone on to earn the 2014 New Apple Award for Excellence by Independent Publishing. When victims start piling up after being killed in the same precise manner with a disturbing dismemberment, all on a Tuesday evening and each time of death being at exactly 11:05 p.m., the detectives of the Strandtown Police Station in Ireland must beat the clock to find the killer. Just when you think you have got it all figured out, they hit you with a ruse and suddenly you find yourself enticed into a 12-year-old suicide. Struggling to find a connection between the two incidents gets a hundred times more difficult when the murders point fingers at a few different possible suspects and a bunch of motives. Can they find the truth before another Tuesday night comes?
After reading a vast amount of positive reviews, I had high expectations for this book. While truly a captivating 'whodunit', I was certainly left a bit disappointed. I found all the characters to be pretty likable, except the main character of the story and that presents a huge problem. The perspective is a woman detective who has been scorned by the male population both in her love life and her in her former precinct, after discovering a huge corruption. While understandable and relatable, she comes off as way too cold and yet at times, the complete opposite. It is all rather bi-polar.
My second disappointment is how the story was articulated. While the concept was great, O'Hare has managed to turn it into a completely too coincidental story. The characters are connected in a way that is hardly believable as well as how the murders were actually solved. On the subject of the murders, I had it all figured out less than halfway through, and that rarely happens to me as I am no good at solving mysteries I must say.
On a good note, I did very much enjoy the aspect and 'whodunit' concept of the story. Although I did figure it all out pretty early on, I was still completely enthralled enough to finish to find out how it all tied together in the end. O'Hare does have an easy and natural writing style that is a joy to follow, however, he does use a strong Irish dialect that took me a few chapters to get used to. Overall, I would rate The 11:05 Murders 3 out of 5 stars.
**Disclaimer: This book was sent to me as an ARC from Onlinebookclub.org in exchange for my honest review.
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