Death of a Penniless Poet

Miss Busby Investigates, Book 2

By: Karen Baugh Menuhin, Zoe Markham

Narrated by: Corrie James

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Gabriel Travis – a poet and book binder – has lived and worked above the popular bookshop in Chipping Common for many years. His story is tragic, his murder even more so. The police are convinced the bookshop owner is the culprit; the elderly and erudite, Ezekiel Melnyk.

Adeline Fanshawe is less convinced, indeed she is outraged that the police could even consider such a thing of the venerable bookseller. She naturally turns to Miss Busby, persuading her to bring her sleuthing skills to unpick the truth of the matter. In doing so, Miss Busby uncovers another tragic mystery, one that has lain dormant for far too many years.

If you love Miss Marple, you'll love this!

©2023 Little Cat Publishing Ltd (P)2023 Little Cat Publishing Ltd

Respectful and well written characters.

I like that the stories don’t have the characters taking stupid risks. That always feels like a manipulation and a shortcut. These characters work out the answer to the mystery rather than stumbling upon it.

Hits all the spots

I enjoyed every minute of this book, it hits all the spots; looking forward to the next one.

Fabulous second installment

The second installment of the new series by Karen Menuhin is amazing, she seems to click all the boxes. Interesting plot, sensitive, useless, treated beautifully, and even a budding love story. My favorite current detective series! Excellent narrator.

10 STARS FOR MISS BUSBY

Menuhin's stories just keep getting better!! With Miss Busby we have another start to a great series. With an Excellent Narrator, easy to listen, and wonderful voice distinctions, transitions flow smoothly between chapters and characters. Love all Karen Menuhin's mysteries: detailed, complex. If you like Poirot or Holmes, you'll like Miss Busby and Lennox.

A winner!

This series by KB Menuhin just gets better and better. I enjoy spending time with these quirky characters and immersing in their friendships and mystery solving adventures

Great plot and characters

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was kept guessing whodunit till last part. I found the story and characters more developed than book 1. Looking forward to book 3.

Please retire this series.

Clearly, we have come to the end of this series. I was deeply disappointed by the very thin story of this book. The characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts of stereotypes with not one being of any interest, including Ms. Busby! One can get away with that in the first book, as the introduction of the characters, but the second book needs to develop the characters in an interesting way. Give them depth. 90% of this book consisted of ladies speculating and gossiping about the murder. It was so boring it literally put me to sleep numerous times. Not at all the story and storytelling I cherish by Ms. Menuhin with her Lennox series. I would not be surprised if Chat GPT wrote this book as it is that formulative and dull. The book was much too long for such a thin story. Not once did it ever hold my attention, let alone, my interest. No suspense at all. If she insists on trying to further develop this series, she must give the primary characters some depth and interest and, for the love of God, do away with or minimize the Scottish detective. I have no problem with the narration. It isn't great, but it's good enough for this tripe. However, a Scottish accent is clearly beyond the narrator's ability, and thank God for that, as a real Scottish accent is virtually impossible to understand, so why she decided to make the detective a Scott (and a stereotypical red-headed, foul tempered Scott) is beyond me. That was a losing proposition to begin with. Marry this character to the female journalist (retire him) and bring in a brilliant British detective who has an impeccable eye for detail and allows Ms. Busby to fill in the missing pieces with her continuity of knowledge of the village history and its people. Maybe then the murders will be more interesting, the relationship between Ms. Busby and the law more dynamic (less stereotypical) the characters more fulfilling and maybe, just maybe, some actual, historic insight into English village life. Although, any change would be better than the series offers currently. It is such a shame this book missed the mark by such a wide margin.

Tedious and lacking in charm.

I love Lennox, and, not especially enjoying Busby book one, really hoped that this would be better. Unfortunately, I knew who the murderer was when the character was introduced. The bickering between best friends grew tiresome. The narration was excellent, the only reason I finished it. Seems to me Ms Busby is totally lacking in humility, and a bit of a bully even though she brings treats along with her demands. This is a series you will either love or abandon.