A Likely Story

A Library Lover's Mystery

By: Jenn McKinlay

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

A new audiobook in the Library Lover's mystery series from the New York Times best-selling author of On Borrowed Time.

Small-town librarian Lindsey Norris must solve a murder and a missing persons case involving two reclusive brothers.

Not his brother's keeper

Delivering books to the housebound residents of the Thumb Islands, just a short boat ride from the town of Briar Creek, library director Lindsey Norris has befriended two elderly brothers, Stewart and Peter Rosen. She enjoys visiting them in their treasure-filled, ramshackle Victorian on Star Island until she discovers that Peter has been killed and Stewart is missing. Now she's determined to solve a murder and find Stewart before he suffers his brother's fate.

Includes bonus short story "An Unlikely Meeting".

©2015 Jenn McKinlay (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“Sure to please cozy readers everywhere.” (Ellery Adams, New York Times best-selling author)

 “A winning formula.” (Library Journal)  

“A sparkling setting, lovely characters, books, knitting, and chowder! What more could any reader ask?” (Lorna Barrett, New York Times best-selling author)

Murder on a secluded island

As A Likely Story by Jenn McKinlay opens, head librarian Lindsey and her friend Sully, the captain of the water taxi service in Briar Creek, are taking books to a pair of reclusive senior citizen brothers on one of the many small islands in their Connecticut coastal area when they find the body of Peter Rosen in his wheelchair with a gunshot through his head. The brothers are notorious for having booby trapped their island, so Chief Emma gets caught in an explosion, breaking her leg and keeping her out of action. In the meantime, Stewart, the other brother, has disappeared, and no one knows whether he is a victim, the murderer, or a fugitive in hiding from the killer. Trying to find some answers to this crime, Lindsey and Sully find some curious inconsistencies in the stories they hear from others around.

Meanwhile, Lindsey still has to run the library and live her life. The scenes that take place with the members of the Crafternoon Club and library staff are a lot of fun. I especially loved the scene where Beth, the children’s librarian, goes undercover to check out the sexy new male librarian at another library in the area. Since he started his new job, the number of children attending Beth’s story hour has decreased, especially those being brought by their mothers, whom Beth suspects of selecting the other library’s story hour to get their fill of eye candy. So Beth takes her Curious George doll as a pretend baby and Lindsey wears a wig and dresses as an old lady.

This book has some great parts, but the story is a bit light, with less substance than the prior books in this series. The other books have Lindsey use her librarian skills to help solve the mysteries, but other than looking up old newspaper articles, she does not demonstrate her librarian skills here, whether by doing research for the case or by serving as the library director, other than her undercover visit to the other library.

The two main things that have endeared this series to me are the creative ways Lindsey has used her librarian skills to help solve the mystery and the delightful characters we see throughout the book. I already discussed the disappointing lack of research, but I did enjoy the characters. We see the library employees together in the library more often, and their interaction was fun. Further, the ladies of the Crafternoon Club give extra fun to the book.

In addition to the novel, we get a cute short story, “An Unlikely Meeting,” featuring Lindsey’s dog, Heathcliff.

I really enjoyed the performance of Allyson Ryan in narrating the audio edition of this book. She brings the book to life and has a voice that just seems to be that of Lindsey in her reading, yet she also uses great voices for the other characters as well. For example, she voices the characters of senior citizen women to whom she gives really unique voices. I was thoroughly impressed by the contribution that Ryan gives to the book.

Despite my previously stated concerns, A Likely Story gave me nine hours of delightful entertainment. I found myself carrying my phone around everywhere just so that I could keep listening to this book. I give it four stars.

Best one yet!

What did you love best about A Likely Story?

This is the best Library Lover's Mystery yet! The plot was detailed and intriguing. The characters and their relationships were well-developed. The setting was fresh and very creative. It definitely left me on the edge of my seat!

Great read, as usual

Darn! Last, just published book in this series, I'll be in withdrawal until the next book is written and published. This is an addicting series, especially for those who love libraries and cozy mysteries

Unlikeable Story

This series is more about romance than mystery. I forced myself to read the last two books, but, I should have known to stop when the love triangle was introduced. The romance is becoming a bigger part of the plot and the characters keep rehashing it's origin. I'm finally done.

Stupid Britt

I wish that Robbie, the obnoxious British actor, would ride off in the sunset. This character is just unnecessary distraction to stronger, significant character.

ADDICTING

I started by reading book 1 and then 2---now I'm addicted. Great job! These stories are fun, mystery, dialog is great, I laugh until my family thinks I'm weird.(They are watching TV while I'm in the corner reading and crying or laughing with your books.)

Keep them coming

Not one of my favorites

I struggled with this book, not one of Jenn McKinlay's best. I hated the narration. I didn't like the way the narrator portrayed the older characters.