Christy

Phryne Stories and 1920’s recipes - great fun

Reviewed: 01-02-25

Just wanted to mention that these stories are clever and lighthearted. Lovely way to spend a few hours (the whole book) or a half hour with Phryne. A recipe appropriate to the story is added at the end of each tale. Plus, some thoughts from Kerry Greenwood about her writing methods and her characters. I really enjoyed the entire thing!

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Great episode!

Reviewed: 10-11-24

R.W. Green continues to write good new stories for Agatha & friends! This one is quite twisty and more complex than most I recall, making it very enjoyable and leaves me looking forward to more.

Some excellent “Agatha” moments and great chuckles. Thanks, R.W. Green, for continuing the series!

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Enjoyable post-WWI series

Reviewed: 10-09-24

I have read the first 5 of the Verity Kent mysteries in the course of the last few months. I am finding them to be very absorbing, so I’m enjoying reading them relatively close together. Fortunately, most of them are now available to borrow from the Plus Catalog - great to have!

The devastation of WWI and the Spanish flu following hard on the war is a huge subject, and Huber handles her characters deftly and paints the varying ways people in England dealt with recovering from it all very well, mixing hardships and sadness with well-earned joy and laughter. Watching Verity (and Sidney) become close again as they work toward getting to know each other after the war, plus the intrigues they get up to with an interesting group of friends has been very entertaining.

My only wish would be for the narrator to have a more lifelike interpretation of the characters, particularly Verity. It’s hard for me to pin down. Heather Wilds has a sing-songy quality to her voice, which really annoys me when she will say a sentence with tones seeming to go up when I think they should go down. I get used to it as I am listening, but there are times…

Highly recommended!

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Best one yet!

Reviewed: 10-05-24

This is one of my favorite series. If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend starting with the first book, which is called “Some Danger Involved” and proceed from there to get the full backstory and the full appreciation of the wonderful characters and humor. I was chuckling out loud in this one to the very end, although there are some pretty grisly murders in this one!

This book has enough back story in it that it can be read and appreciated as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading the series from the beginning. I loved the setup and the poisonings just keep on occurring, involving Cyrus, Thomas, and their whole “family.” So it’s a race to find the killer and it’s a tense ride. The narrator, as always, is superb and does so many different accents that you know who is speaking at all times.

I think this is now my favorite episode yet.

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Another fascinating book from Kate Quinn

Reviewed: 09-23-24

Really enjoyed this one, which has a 1947 component and a WWI component. I found the WWI-era story more compelling, and found afterwards that, like many of Quinn’s books, it’s based largely on real people. Amazing story! Each section of the 1947 portion of the book leads the reader to the next portion of the WWI story, so it’s really necessary, but I didn’t find the 1947 part of the book anywhere nearly as interesting. The narrator does an excellent job with English, French, German and American accents.

If you haven’t read any of Kate Quinn’s books yet, my favorite is The Diamond Eye. Amazing read/listen.

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I listened twice…

Reviewed: 09-23-24

Love Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. This one was okay, but I thought that there were too many characters to keep track of and appreciate. The characters who I expect will be ongoing are a mixed bag for me. I got to know a lot about Rosie and think she may not wear well, but that remains to be seen. Steve is lovable, with all his quirks, and will probably surprise the most as the stories go forward. I think Amy was the least fleshed-out of the three, but has a lot of potential.

As to this book itself: I was drawn in immediately and enjoyed the storytelling, but as I went along, I was very conscious that the author is beginning a series, which I thought was an odd impression. At the end of the first listen, I was surprised (and confused) by the ultimate culprits. I thought it was because there were so many characters and so many places (sometimes simultaneously). So I listened a second time and kept track of the characters on paper. This worked pretty well and I liked it better. But I still like the TMC better and don’t know if I will be that interested in reading another adventure with Amy, Steve & Rosie.

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A puzzler, but not to my taste

Reviewed: 09-15-24

There’s a lot of techie stuff in here, which usually is right up my alley. Even the huge amount of information about spiders was kind of fascinating. But the murders and the sociopathic personalities just got too graphic for me, so I could not finish it. That is the only problem with audios: if it turns out that there are descriptions you’d rather not read, there’s no way to know how far you need to skip to get past it! But this was a First Reads choice, so I have the Kindle version too. I think I may read the print book instead.

I have particularly enjoyed Isabella Maldonado’s Nina Guerrera series, which I found on Kindle Unlimited. So I will give this one another chance in a different format.

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This series is so much fun!

Reviewed: 08-28-24

When you’ve read a few really serious books and are in need of a light one that still has a good story, these books are just the ticket!

They take place in almost-the-20th-century England, in the complicated times of bringing young ladies into society, but have even more complicated murder(s) afoot. Some humor, a tiny touch of romance, make for an enjoyable way to spend a few hours and decompress.

I like the narrator, but I had difficulty distinguishing a lot of the male characters, which would have been helpful, since there are quite a lot of them involved in the mystery. Otherwise, she does a great job with some of the dry humor.

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Not as good as the first…

Reviewed: 08-17-24

I really loved the first story, The Bookstore Sisters, and was so disappointed that this one was flawed by the inclusion of so many corny recipe names (there were at least 12, plus some repeated). It annoyed me, because it was so over-the-top.

I must say that I went back and listened to the first story before I could let myself listen to this one in its entirety. As I listened to the second story, I realized that I would have enjoyed it much more without all of those “Marry Me, Marry Me” wedding cake and “Make the Most of Life” pink lemonade cake references. For me, it was just too much. It seemed like the author was mentioning some sort of baked good with every other sentence. And I do realize that the baking recipes from their mother were a huge unifying factor in the stories. Just distracting to me and marred my enjoyment.

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1 person found this helpful

I have missed our heroes!

Reviewed: 07-11-24

Excellent story. Lots of twists. Interesting historical period, and Charlton is the best at placing her characters in historical context.

Michael Page is a terrific narrator, as usual.

I did miss the Author’s note at the back (audio publisher didn’t include it), because it’s where Charlton explains the specific historical incidents and people she used and where she took some artistic license. Fortunately, I had the Kindle edition as well, so I was able to read it.

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