Caroline

And the murderer is…

Revisado: 04-14-25

Someone who barely appears in the story until the author needed to pin the crime on someone. I suppose it was supposed to be a plot twist, but it felt lazy.

Annoying.

Surprisingly, the virtual voice wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t great, but it could have been worse. The computer very nearly made an effort at infection.

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Virtual Voice isn’t so bad

Revisado: 04-12-25

It says something when the virtual voice is not the worst thing about a book.

It’s a cozy mystery and so I don’t expect much. But, a cop who walks in and essentially says, let me know when you solve it? A barking dog not giving the sleuths away (are the crooks deaf??). Why is the boyfriend here?

Just…no

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Anachronism and Americanisms Galore

Revisado: 04-10-25

It’s the 1920s, right?

“Police tape”? A nurse just lugging a “wheelchair” around in their van? The group eating out every single night?

“Egg salad”? Pretty sure no one in the UK calls it that.

Finally, is the suspect Dot’s brother or her cousin? Does anyone know? Probably not.

This virtual voice is the worse one yet.

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I gave up

Revisado: 04-07-25

I don’t expect great literature from cozy mysteries. And I expect them to get eye rolling ridiculous at some point which is part of the fun.

But when the ridiculous scale reaches 100 in the first chapter, you know it’s gonna be bad.

I nearly gave up when, despite there being a body in the next room, are heroine and her bestie are more guessed that the bestie’s boyfriend broke up with her then the fact that the bestie’s mother has been murdered.

When the heroine was astonished when said bestie found out something about the murder scene before she did, despite, you know, being the daughter of the victim.

It finally jumped the shark when the heroine was aghast that the cop knew the contents of the victims will, but she didn’t.

The narrator did a good job overall, but since the main characters are supposed to be in their 30s, I don’t know why she made them sound like they were in their 80s.

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Ridiculous

Revisado: 04-07-25

I think authors need to stop adding bodies to Jane Auten’s world. This one is as ridiculous as Death Comes to Pemberly but at least that story only had one dead body. People are falling like flies at Mansfield, but no one is actually even trying to find out why. They are just sitting around the drawing room all saying “not it”.

The virtual voice actually wasn’t bad. Not great, but not terribly robotic and even has some appropriate inflection at certain points.

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Eh…

Revisado: 04-01-25

Thank god the author told us how great the book would be in the beginning otherwise I never would have known.

The story was insipid. The narrator sounded bored and was, as a result, boring.

Give it a miss.

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Boring

Revisado: 04-01-25

What a yawn fest. About half of this book is just the main character being very impressed with herself and expecting others to be the same without any cause.

The narrator is completely miscast. I think the main character is supposed to be about 40, but she sounds about 90.

Fortunately it was part of the plus catalog and I don’t waste a credit on it.

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Bored Narrator

Revisado: 10-10-24

I wish I had paid closer attention when selecting this version. I didn’t realize it wasn’t narrated by Hugh Fraser. Richard Armitage sounds bored and manages to make Agatha Christie sound boring.

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Not Bowen’s Best Effort

Revisado: 09-29-24

I’ve read a lot of Rhys Bowen’s books, but this one is just not good. The mysteries solution was obvious and easy. The main character was an arrogant trope. The coincidences and leaps of logic that had to take place to make this mystery make any sense were annoying. And there was this a 1960s story that was just out of place.

The narration was good. The narrator was able to make each voice distinctive. The accents were good. Nothing to complain about there.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Who ARE these People?

Revisado: 06-11-19

This is what you must know before you listen to book 6 in the Fox and O'Hare series.

1. Lee Goldberg obviously did all the heavy lifting in books 1 through 5
2. Lee Goldberg did not participate in this book at all
3. New co-author Peter Evanovich obviously didn't read or even skim any of the previous books
4. The only thing AT ALL that ties this book to books 1 through 5 is Scott Brick's narration.

Please pause for a moment to give thanks for Scott Brick.

So - who are these people? There are characters called Kate O'Hare and Nick Fox. There is a character called Jake that is Kate's dad. There is a character called Carl Jessop that is Kate's boss. And there is a character called Cosmo that is Kate's really annoying co-worker.

But they are not Kate, Nick, Jake, Jessop or even Cosmo. They are pod people.
This is not a Fox and O'Hare book. First of all, there is no con - no con at all. Nick is a CON man, but nope, here he is just an FBI drudge. Sadly, because there is no con, there is also no team. No Willy, no Tom, no Chet, nada.

Also, Nick goes to the FBI office for a meeting. I repeat, Nick goes to the FBI office for a MEETING. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Apparently, the authors either forgot (or did not know) that Nick is a fugitive from the FBI, running COVERT operations.
There is more, but thinking about how my favorite series just tanked is making my brain hurt.

The only thing that can redeem book 7 (if, heaven help us, there is one) is to give these characters back into the safe and creative hands of Lee Goldberg with an opening scene that goes something like this.

Kate starts awake from a sound sleep in a panic, having just had the worst dream about a ridiculous case involving someone how refers to himself as the Kahuna. After breathlessly explaining it to Nick, he tells her she need to stop eating 3x3 In-n-Out burgers before bed...

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