Little Shop of Homicide

A Devereaux’s Dime Store Mystery, Book 1

By: Denise Swanson

Narrated by: Maia Guest

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Dev Sinclair is the happy new owner of the old-fashioned shop in her small Missouri town. But if she doesn't focus on finding the killer of her ex's fiance, this five-and-dime owner may find herself serving 25 to life.

©2012 Denise Swanson Stybr (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

More Romance than Mystery

I was looking for an amusing but intriguing mystery. This is not it. It's really a romance novel with a whodunnit as a means to get the two main character together. I am not a romance novel fan so I couldn't make to the end.

Definitely not what I expect from Denise Swanson!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I don't know. I have been listening to the Scrumble River series and thought I might also enjoy this. I enjoy mysteries, but this had a lot of throbbing body parts, touches that sent shivers down someone's back, and other things that you don't usually find in a good mystery. Another reviewer was correct when she said it was 1/3 mystery and 2/3 sappy. I think Ms. Swanson may have been trying to make it sexy, but failed miserably.

Has Little Shop of Homicide turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not the cozy mystery genre, but I'm not really sure what genre this belongs to. I definitely will not check to see if there is another book in this series.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment! I enjoyed the Scrumble River series from Denise Swanson and hoped this would be as good. It seems that Denise Swanson is trying to go in a steamier direction.

Disappointing to put it mildly

The story might have been fine, the mystery part was reasonable, but the characters lacked development as if they’d been dropped into the plot as afterthoughts without continuity or grace. The romance parts were so poorly written that I cringed when listening to them. I’m perfectly aware that love scenes can be very difficult to balance between too little and too much. If an author wishes to ‘fade to black’ that’s fine, and if they can be more graphic with polish, I’m ok with that too, but these were neither, and were all absolute clinkers with no rhyme nor reason. If the romance aspect of the book had been less heavy handed, the mystery parts might have held up better, but getting yanked out of the story repeatedly made me sure I won’t want to explore any more of this series again.

The narration was flat and uninteresting, though I’m not sure I blame the narrator since she had so little to work with.

2nd try

It didn’t take long to figure out why I DNFed on my first try. From the beginning the idea that a bulls-busting MBA would put up with the detective and respond to his accusations with such insecurity seems unlikely.

Painful to Get Through

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Those who enjoy VERY light story lines and ... Nothing else nice to say.

Has Little Shop of Homicide turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not the genre. But I won't continue the series or listen to anything else from the narrator.

What didn’t you like about Maia Guest’s performance?

It was awful. All voices other than the main character (which I'm sure is her voice) were terrible. They just sounded like sick/and or long term smoking versions of the main character.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Unfortunately, no.

Any additional comments?

Skip it.

I Never Made it Past Chapter 4

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I don't think anything could have to be honest. The narrator was driving me insane but the book was equally as bad so it was pretty much a hopeless scenario. If I knew how to return it for a refund, I totally would.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Probably the next book in the Enchanted Inc series.

Any additional comments?

I can't remember where my problem with the book began, but I can tell you the moment the love interest said (I'm paraphrasing):

"I'll try to help you Darling, but I must warn you - my life is in danger!"

That was the end of the end. Seriously. I can clearly tell that no one taught this author the benefits of "show don't tell" as a narrative tool, but there's no excuse for the editor that decided to publish it.