A Grave Misunderstanding

A Simon Grave Mystery

By: Len Boswell

Narrated by: JC Jacobson

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Murder has come once more to the seaside town of Crab Cove, testing the mettle of “almost handsome” Detective Simon Grave and his “nearly invisible” partner, Sergeant Barry Blunt, who investigate a locked-room mystery with a significant twist: the prime suspects are in the locked room, not the victim, a logic-defying situation that challenges the team at every turn.

As if murder weren’t enough, they must also investigate the simultaneous disappearance of The MacGuffin Trophy from that same locked room, the studio of artist Whitney Waters, famous for her stylized paintings of red herrings.

Who is/are the killer(s)? How did he/she/they get out of the locked room with the trophy, kill the victim, and return unnoticed by others in the room? These and other questions, including the limits of logic and the meaning of life, are posed and perhaps even answered in this quirky, near-future mystery. Yes, there are robots.

©2018 Black Rose Writing (P)2018 Beacon Audiobooks

Pretty good story, a few laughs

My measure of a book is if it irritates me so that I skip ahead and listen to the end first. This book did not do that. It was a little bit slow paced and a bit predictable, but the clues lined up and the main character was pretty good.

Main character sticks to the case, finds a lady friend, secondary characters are fairly well developed as well, so I don't understand why this book has a less than 4 star rating. It's a pretty good book, solid four.

My only grouch is the reader mispronounces words. That really should never happen. It's rather unprofessional, and is probably the reason this book is rated lower than it deserves. I hope audible cleans that up.

fun story, curious narrator

I enjoyed the story. It was a fun mystery with enough twists to be interesting. My main issue was with the narrator. Though he has a fine voice, there were many, many mispronounced words, with some being only recognizable from context. I suspect one of the main reasons he was chosen was his spoken resemblance to actor Peter Graves of Mission Impossible fame, the actor's name being a small joke by the audiobook production staff.

Not funny. Not witty. Not worth the effort.

This may have been an unusual and fun story. The main character seemed to have promise . The subordinate who blended into the background offered a new view on an often used character. A looked room with suspects inside rather than the victim seemed promising. Unfortunately the author was unable to deliver and the story was unbelievable, ponderous and boring .