Dianna

I'm sure this is a good book, However, it just didn't do it for me. The characters were likable and the plot was good. But it didn't keep my interest. After the first few chapters I skipped to the end for the final summation. I will probably go back and listen to it from beginning to end later. But, I have to give it 3 stars because I liked the idea of the book. It's not bad it just wasn't me.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Anteater of Death. It actually has two sources of suspense: the murders that Teddy sets out to investigate, and the daily active life of zoo animals. There are the incidents with the anteater, who I never thought of as a dangerous animal before this book, as well as the incidents with a bear, a child falls into the bear pit, and wolves, a mated pair of wolves have a bloody lovers' quarrel. The author does a good job of comparing human relationships with animal relationships. Through it all Teddy remains calm, in control, and above all puts the animals first. Betty Webb does a good job of creating villains and likeable characters. Hillary Hubbard also does a good job of making the voices different so that the characters had their own individual voices. This is a good book to read while driving or doing house work.

There are so many things wrong with this story that I don't know where to begin. The first thing that irritated me was the narrator's voice. Connie Crawford has a difficult time with male and female inflection. The different voices she used were awful. Also, Crawford can't do a decent Texas accent. Being from Houston Texas, I found her attempt very irritating. Towards the end of the book it seemed as if Crawford was tired because she rushed through the reading as if she were in a race. I looked ahead and noticed that Crawford is also reading the next book. In the future I will avoid her as a narrator.
Normally I can get over a bad narrator if the story is good. No such luck. For some odd reason, the author forgot the main ingredient that makes this a successful series. Betsy, Jill, and Godwin barely had speaking parts. Instead,this story revolved around a family drama and a character that would normally be on the periphery of the story. The characters were flat and uninteresting. The plot although believable was lacking in substance. It was filled with long and unnecessary descriptions of the items found in the murder victim's home. I felt like Ferris was writing to fill pages. Also, the villain was obvious. In fact, the villain was pointed out at the beginning of the story and the reasons were spelled out over and over throughout the book.
This was not one of the best book in the series. It was the worst. I wish I hadn't wasted a credit on it.