A lively & intelligent cozy mystery

Alex Harris runs a small but successful temp agency in her home town of Indian Cove, Connecticut. Her sister, Samantha, works for her, and the small number of Alex's office employees are a tight-knit little family. Alex also has a close extended family, including not just her and Sam's husbands, and Sam's two children, but the sisters' parents and grandparents.

And then Alex's husband, Indian Cove police detective John Van der Burg, messes things up by showing up at Alex's office to arrest Sam for the murder of the building inspector who failed to pass the new sunroom addition to Sam's house.

Well, really, just take her in for questioning, because they have a witness saying that Sam had a loud confrontation with him the previous morning in which she may have threatened to kill him.

Alex and John are coming up on their one-year anniversary. After this outrage, she's not sure they'll make it. In fairness, it should perhaps be noted that even at the height of her outrage, she's not entirely serious about that last bit.

Sam refuses to give any kind of an alibi, which does make it harder for the police to drop her as a possible suspect, and of course Alex can't help but get involved in trying to find the real killer to clear first Sam, and then her husband, Michael, after it's clear Sam isn't a viable suspect. In the process, she learns a great deal not just about the dead inspector, but his family, his dead wife's family, the school both his and Sam's kids attend, and an impressive array of other people who may or may not be connected to his death, but in this small town, were definitely connected to him, one way or another.

It's a lively, interesting story, with unexpected bits of humor. I especially like the fact that the characters are well-developed and complex. We meet several characters who are definitely quite flawed and hard to like, yet prove to have some quite positive traits as well. Nor is it a simplistic, "see, everyone is nice after all." These are characters who are truly a realistic mix of the good and the bad.

Another thing I really like is that Alex, while by no means a professional investigator, doesn't do reckless or foolish things. That doesn't mean she never makes a mistake, but she doesn't do the things that make you want to scream at the page or the screen that doing that is insane and you're going to get yourself killed. She considers them sometimes, but she doesn't do them. I love that simple possession of common sense as well as intelligence.

Michelle Babb always enhances anything she narrates, which is why I rarely pass up an opportunity to review her audiobooks. Her voice is clear and easy on the ear, and she's both expressive, and good at distinguishing the characters.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

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Light Beach Read - Family Centric Mystery

In this story, an unlikable character gets killed and nearly everyone is suspect. I love when authors can take a serious subject such as murder and present it with both the seriousness it deserves and with levity. Author Elaine Macko carries this out with finesse by injecting functional and dysfunction-- all very realistic-- relationship issues in to a rather fun reading/listening experience. Clever quips, quirky relationship toggles, and mutually nulling affects of pitting self-flagellation against self-justification, keep all the backstories bobbing in along with the progression of this "who done it. Macko keeps it a light and fun and packed with family interactions (there's even a pet), thus making a nice contribution to the genre.

Narrator Michelle Babb does a great job with both male and female voices. There is one comment: For all characters, she injects pauses into her flow of speech that seem incongruous to what I would consider the natural flow of speech. I get the impression Babb's broken cadence is an issue of deliberate style rather than an inadvertent flaw. Either way, I found it distracting and, by the time I finally got used to it, I had nearly reached the end of the book.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you Audiobook Boom.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Nailed: The Alex Harris Mysteries, Book 8

Alex Harris is a cross between Nancy Drew and Lucy Ricardo(from I love Lucy). The mystery itself was fine but I found the seemingly endless list of suspects overdone. I would recommend this book to adolescent and teenage readers because I think a younger reader would appreciate the attempts at humor that just fell flat for me.

The narrator did a decent job with both male and female voices. I appreciate the fact that she wasn't over dramatic and that she didn't go overboard when trying to do a foreign accent.

I received a free copy of the audio-book version of this publication from the narrator, Michelle Babb in exchange for an honest review.

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Great story

I really loved this story. It had murder, mystery, and an all around good feel. The characters were well developed and narrator Michelle's Babb "nailed" it! she did a great job giving the characters their own identity. If she narrated a book I'm going to listen because I enjoy her style.

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Me, too, Melstamps!

In looking over a few of the previous reviews, I have to say that Melstamps hit the nail on the head (pun definitely intended). "Nailed" is a well crafted cozy mystery with some humor and lots of interesting characters. I didn't guess the killer, but the clues were definitely there. I'll definitely be interested in the previous books in the series.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you, Audiobook Boom.

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I'd prefer to READ this book!

This is book 8 in the Alex Harris mystery series and I haven't read the previous books. Book 8 is the first to become an audiobook and it also caused a great deal of wonder - why? But the plot was of interest to me, so I'd give it a try.

I didn't feel I missed anything in the story, but at some points I knew I'd be better off if I had started at book one. The story is well-plotted, well-written and the characters has a lot of personality. The author did a very fine job in creating this story and I'd also like to read the rest of series, but only read - NOT listen…

The narrator Michelle Babb disappointed me a lot. She was just reading the book without knowing what was coming. She wasn't at all prepared for the next scene and almost spelled out every word, like it was a good-night story for the kids. She paused many times, just to pick up the last word in a sentence. I was so annoyed, that it took me a long time to finish it, because I paused the book to pick it up again after another book.

Many reviews here are giving the narrator 4 and 5 stars and if I should buy this book based on these reviews, I'd be furious and would return it ASAP! I really hope this book will be re-recorded and another narrator would do the rest. This is really an insult to both the listener - AND the author as well, who has actually created a great story.

*This book was gifted to me in exchange for an HONEST review.

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revenge

I found it hilarious that the wife of a detective was an amateur sleuth. I enjoyed her ramblings of possible clues. It serms both sisters wete having a midlife crisis in thinking their husbands were cheating! Hormonal much??? I enjoyed the step by step explanations of who, what. where, and why. I was surprised who actually done it. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a good job.

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Jenny's review

I really like cozy mysteries allot and the only thing I disliked is when the story ends. There are a couple swear words so beware but otherwise it's a good story. Michelle Babb does a great job as usual narrating and she brings all the characters to life.

Alex Vanderburg's sister is arrested by Alex's husband for the murder of Victor Sanjari and everything gets turned upside down. Asked by family and friends to solve false charges against Sam (Alex's sister) is out to find who truly killed Victor and clear her sister's name.
Book 8 in the series I had no problem following along and getting to know all the characters.

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Mixed Feelings

Would you ever listen to anything by Elaine Macko again?

Off the cuff, I'd have to say no, but I don't know how fair that is. I hate starting a series in the middle due to the fact that a lot of details are established as are the characters' personalities. Jumping into the middle of a series can make you miss out on 'falling for' the characters (for lack of a better term).For instance, I really, really disliked Alex. For me, she came off as a slightly arrogant, selfish, foolish person. I didn't understand what could possibly make her new husband put up with her interfering ways, withholding evidence, making him sleep in the guest room for doing his job, and implying by action that he wasn't all that good at it anyway. Why or how they came to be together was an utter mystery to me.

Then there were some of the decisions and actions she made throughout the book that just cemented my dislike. She seemed judgemental and her tactics left much to be desired even for an amateur detective. She had done this 7 times before, after all.

BUT I have a feeling that a lot of the scenes and quirks that left me eye-rolling in annoyance might have had me chuckling in an 'oh, her' manner had I been more familiar with the character. For instance, she seems to look down on people who have smartphones, doesn't respond to texts, and seems a bit technology illiterate, but then whips out an iPad at one point and seems to be able to operate it just fine. Oh, and is there some endorsement deal with Honda, because why else does she mention her car and compare it to those of other people so much? These may well be established, even humorous personality traits well established in the previous books. I just don't know and never had the chance to grow to appreciate them, if they are.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't be leaving a review at all. But I received this book for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review and didn't have time to go back and read the 7 books before this one. So here we are. I'm left leaving an unfavorable review for a book that was clearly written more for tried and true fans of the series and not newcomers.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Michelle Babb?

There are no mixed feelings about this performance, though. And there are any number of people I can think of who would have done a much better job: Orlagh Cassidy, Lorelei King, Barbara Rosenblat, just to name a few. Babb's reading was more distracting than immersive. She has this halting delivery that sounds like she's doing a table read, seeing the words for the very first time. Or like she's a very good automated system. This made it hard to determine which character is talking during the dialogue and made the entire book drag.

Her reading probably knocked my enjoyment of the story down a whole star-level so I'm glad I can review the story and performance separately.

Any additional comments?

I try to abide by the unbiased and honest part of the Audiobook Boom process, so I've pointed out the things that genuinely kept me from enjoying this book. That said, I don't necessarily know how *fair* this review is, as it's kind of like coming into the middle of a conversation and telling both sides that they're wrong, even though you don't have all the facts. So, grain of salt for this one.

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Light, but enteraining.

Disclosure: I received a promo code to get this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.

I believe this is the first "cozy mystery" I have read or listened to. I found Alex Harris to be an interesting and likeable character. The other characters were generally developed enough for the purposes of the story. Some of the speculation regarding potential suspects seemed a bit much, but made sense for the most part. My biggest complaint is that the ending seemed a little abrupt, and a couple plot lines were resolved too tidily at the very end.

Michell Babb's narration helped carry this story, and made it more engaging. She did a great job of giving distinct voices to all of the characters. I have one minor nit, which distracted me a bit at times. There was a tendency to say phrases such as "I asked", after dialogue, in a way which did not quite flow well; sometimes it even felt like the preceding dialogue and those phrases had been recorded separately. Still, I look forward to hearing her narration of other books.

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