Once Upon a Crime

By: Alan Brenham

Narrated by: Molly Secours

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

When a Fort Worth police detective finds herself caught between a child custody battle and the hunt for a cunning psychotic killer, she must juggle conflicting priorities. Detective Madison Chase must find a way to keep her most prized possession—her young daughter—safe from a killer of sexual predators who leaves rhymes as clues and an ex-husband hell-bent on gaining custody of their daughter.

©2023 Alan Behr (P)2023 Alan Behr

I didn’t see that coming .

Five star might be high but I gave it anyway because the story kept me engaged. There was a lot going on but I liked the protagonist and she seemed real.
I can almost always see through an ending but this one really caught me off guard . The narrator did a good job with the character voices. If you like suspense you’ll enjoy the read.

Swiss Cheese Mystery

This audiobook did not meet my expectations on any level. The main issue being that there were so many plot holes and implausible events I could have driven a big rig through them.

Sadly, the characters weren't any better. Protagonist Madison Chase, a detective in Ft. Worth, is not a very strong character, and has strange ways about her, like leaving her Glock where her preschool daughter can pick it up, then not even punishing her or talking to her about the issue once the weapon is back in her possession. She's too busy being a cop to be an effective mom, although she desperately loves her daughter.

Strangely, her ex-husband considers her more cop than mother as well and wants custody of their daughter. It's the only thing I agreed with him on, though. He's a sleaze bag who spends his nights in the bar with fellow workers, getting drunk and picking up women. He's a very weak personality who allows peer pressure to dominate his decisions, who has no likable traits, and not much going for him in general.

The plot would have been interesting if it could hold water. But there were just too many places where I found myself wondering how an author assumed none of his readers would have an issue with the many implausible moments that left me shaking my head.

Even the narration left me empty on this one as too many of the characters- important ones- sounded too much alike. I wanted to like this story, and truly hate to bash other people's work. But I didn't find this story worth my credit.