A Sticky Inheritance

Maple Syrup Mysteries series, Book 1

By: Emily James

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes feels like she's the only failure amid a family of high achievers. Her last serious boyfriend turned out to be married and her career as a criminal defense attorney is in tatters. 

When her uncle passes away and leaves her his maple syrup farm in Michigan, she thinks it might be time for a career change - hopefully one that allows her to stay as far away from murderers and liars as possible. For half a day at least. Her uncle's suicide quickly begins to look like it wasn't a suicide after all, but the chief of police is reluctant to investigate and soil the reputation of his serene little tourist town. Murder's bad for business. 

Nicole has no choice but to search for the killer on her own, with a little help from the handsome county medical examiner - who's exactly her type and all wrong for her. And as she closes in, she not only risks becoming the murderer's next victim but also starts to wonder if the truth is ever worse than the lie . . .

©2016 Emily James (P)2018 Tantor

A good start

This is a pretty good cozy mystery. There are enough plot twists to keep the story interesting and the characters are engaging. The only thing I really didn't like is development of a live triangle. Andrea Emmes did a good job bringing the story of o life.

Enjoyed this new-to-me author and narrator

So, I started listening to cozy mysteries with the Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery series, because Amanda Ronconi was the narrator and I love her. I found the genre is everything I had heard it was. So, when Andrea Emmes, who was a narrator interview over at Hot Listens, offered me a book to give her a try, I decided to try this cozy mystery. I have not read this author before and Andrea was new-to-me too, but nothing like going for something new. I’m really glad I did.

Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes is a lawyer in her parents firm. Everyone in her family is either a doctor or lawyer and since she’s not a fan of blood, lawyer it was. She’s not a huge fan of it, but wants to live up to what her parents want her to be. That is until she goes up to Michigan to settle her uncle’s estate after his death (her father’s brother and a former cardiologist). The uncle moves to a small town in Michigan after a heart scare. He bought a maple farm and was making maple syrup products. Nikki’s parents disown him for this, though Nikki did keep in touch.

It isn’t long before Nikki realizes something is up. Her uncle’s death was ruled a suicide and she knows this isn’t the case. I won’t go into how I feel like anyone is capable of suicide and hiding it from those closest to them, but in this case, Nikki is right, her uncle was murdered.

It is a cute story as Nikki continues to learn more about people in this small tourist town. The mystery was well thought out. I liked watching as Nikki worked through the small clues she finds. The other characters in the small town are delightful. I could see myself reading/listening to more of this series.

Narration:
This is my first listen from Andrea Emmes. I have to say I really enjoyed her narration. She did a great job with the male and female voices (and there are really more male than female voices in this story). There is also the voice of dying woman (again, heart issues), she was very weak and Andrea did a great job with portraying that in with the voice. I thought she did a good job in bringing out the light humor in the story too. Her pace and tone were spot on. I would love to listen to Andrea Emmes narrator more books.

**I received a free copy of this audiobook and voluntarily chose to review it.

Want to know

I really enjoyed this book and I am anxious to know when the next book will come out.

this is a good book , But ........

I enjoyed this book and the characters were very interesting and believable . I think the ended needed clearing up a bit as it was vague concerning one character. other then that I am looking forward to the next book in this series . the Narrator , Andera Emmes was a a strong reason this book was so good. as always her ability to speak a story so clearly ,you can almost feel the characters before you.. this book is well worth the cost and time to listen .if you do , you will be like me waiting for book 2 .

Couldn’t finish the book

There is a lot of repetition in the beginning, the main character keeps repeating herself and it becomes very tiresome. I just couldn’t continue listening to the repeated set ups of the story.

Sweet Attorney Moves to Maple Syrup Farm

This story of Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes, a criminal defense attorney who goes to Michigan to bury her favorite uncle is a sweet one. Pardon the pun. Nicole is a disappointment to her parents, who are always pushing her to achieve more and more. And when her uncle moved to a Michigan maple syrup farm, leaving his lucrative medical practice, they had a falling out with him, too. Thus, the funeral preparation fell to Nicole. But when she arrives in the tiny town of Fairhaven, she finds that the authorities are awfully quick to rule her Uncle Stanley’s death a suicide. Nicole doesn’t believe it for a minute. But proving it will be more difficult than she had imagined, and get her into some sticky business indeed. This cozy mystery is escapism at its best . . . and I LOVED it. Everyone in a small town has their secrets, and Nicole begins to discover them as she searches for the truth about her uncle’s death. Eventually she uncovers a bit more than she bargained for, and with nearly fatal consequences. But all comes right in the end. And Nicole finds that, like her Uncle Stanley . . . and to her parents’ chagrin, she also has the courage to leave the big city behind. Can’t wait for the next in the series . . .

Murder amid a maple farm

In <strong>A Sticky Inheritance</strong> by Emily James, Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes, a low- level lawyer, who is the daughter of a pair of high power lawyers, travels from Northern Virginia to Fair Haven, Michigan to deal with the death of her beloved Uncle Stanley (Stan) Dawes. Unhappy with the official cause of death, Nikky challenges Mark, the medical examiner, and Police Chief Carl Wilson to look further into the death, which they soon change from accident or suicide to suspicious.

Then, Nikky finds out that, aware of her dissatisfaction with being a lawyer, Uncle Stan has left Sugarwood, the maple syrup farm that provides jobs and supplies for most of the town, to her in the hopes that she will take over the enterprise. Deciding to move to Michigan to take over the farm, Nicole begins poking into the case, narrowing down the suspects to Russ, the manager of Sugarwood who had a falling out with Stan a month earlier, and Jason, the owner of Beaver's Tail Brewery. However, Nicole's snooping leads to someone's attempting to take her life twice.

I enjoyed listening to this fun book. The plot moves smoothly and with some interesting angles. It does not have as much complexity as the best cozy mysteries, but I still enjoyed the book. I would prefer to have been given more possibilities to guess from as to the identity of the killer.

The characters in this book are fun, but mostly not very round. We get hints as to the back story of Nicole, that she is hurting from a past relationship, and we see her disillusion with work as a lawyer. We get glimpses into the lives of other characters, but most don't reveal a whole lot about themselves.

Andrea Emmes performs the audio edition of <strong>A Sticky Inheritance</strong>, in an expressive and clear manner. She has such a sweet-sounding voice that makes the book a delight to listen to. Her performance gives the book more pleasure than merely reading visually would give it.

I had an enjoyable time listening to <strong>A Sticky Inheritance</strong>. The characters and the plot were fun, though I would have liked more depth to both. But it's a good start to a series. I give the book four stars.

<strong>Disclosure:</strong> I received this book from the narrator, but that had no impact on the content of my review.

Cute story.

Nice story line. To predictable. Like the people, town and farm.
Hope the next one has more to think and figure out.