Deep Dark Secrets

Deep Lakes Cozy Mysteries, Book 1

De: Joy Ann Ribar

Narrado por: Meghan Kelly

You’re invited to visit Deep Lakes, Wisconsin and meet a new friend, Francine “Frankie” Champagne. The 40-something owner of Bubble and Bake—bakery by day, wine lounge by night—Frankie is a spitfire pastry maker, vintner, and budding journalist.

Frankie finds herself on the perimeter of a suspicious death that upends the peaceful winter slumber in Deep Lakes when the local pastor is found dead inside his fishing shanty on Lake Loki. Frankie sticks her curious nose into the investigation, despite warnings from the local sheriff to leave it alone. But she has something to prove, maybe to the newspaper editor who wouldn’t hire her as a reporter, maybe to herself as she searches for fulfillment. Regardless, her fierce independence won’t allow her to back down. Follow Frankie as she stumbles upon one discovery after another, trails potential suspects, and solves the case!

©2019 Joy Ann Ribar (P)2025 Joy Ann Ribar

Good story, narrator needs work

Full disclosure, I’m only halfway through but I’m not sure I can finish it. The storyline is good and everything I look for in a cozy, but the narrator sounds like someone instructed her inflection to go up every time she takes a breath or hits a comma and go down before the period. So every sentence has the exact same cadence, giving it an unnatural, scripted sound. For some reason, it’s really distracting. If the inflection were more natural sounding, I think she’d be a great narrator—the voices are good and her tone is easy to listen to.