The Wicked West

The Capital City Murders Series Books 1-5

By: Troy Lambert, Stuart Gustafson

Narrated by: Joseph L. Stevenson

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

It started as a simple freelance photography assignment.

Nick O’Flannigan has a keen eye for detail and a knack for solving mysteries. Murder seems to show up everywhere he goes. From a series of overdoses in Olympia, Washington, to a missing woman in Boise, Idaho, ever state capital offers a new challenge.

This series compilation contains the first five of a total of the 50 novellas that will make up the Capital City Murders series:

• Overdoses in Olympia
• Slaying in Salem
• Strangled in Sacramento
• Decapitated in Carson City
• Buried in Boise

Will a new budding friendship turn romantic? Can he focus on his assignment and still solve the mysteries, or will he put himself in danger? Enjoy the first five books in the Capital City Murders series and get caught up with Nick as he travels the country. Once you start listening, you won't be able to stop!

©2019 Troy Lambert (P)2020 Troy Lambert

A great start to a series

A great collection of books. I loved seeing the character grow. Nick keeps finding himself in the middle of mysteries with out trying.

worth a listen

Nick is never looking for a mystery to be involved in, but he seems to find his way into the mystery. I have enjoyed listening to these books. I listened for an honest review.

Capital City Murders

After having listened to the first book in the series titled, "Overdoses In Olympia", I decided to continue with this compilation of the first five books in the series. The series is about a professional photographer who has been hired to take photographs of the capital buildings in each of the capitals of the individual states. Because this photographer has a "keen eye for details", he is able to help the local police with their investigations. Although each book is rather short, it is amazing the amount of detail and diversity that is portrayed in each story. I recommend this series to those who enjoy well written murder mysteries without sensationalized script; not that every detail described is sterile as these are stories about murder after all. Joseph L Stevenson's narration is pleasant and my appreciation of his style grows with each succeeding story. I was given a free copy of the audiobook and I have voluntarily left this review.

What A Premise

These 5 short stories are about a guy named Nick O'Flannigan who is a freelance photojournalist who is on assignment for Travel USA Magazine to visit all the state capitals and take pictures for the magazine, He has one year to complete his task. So along the way he discovers some kind of Murder at the Capitals and always seems to solve them for the local police. I received this audiobook from the authors and story origin in exchange for my review.

Books 1-5 of this Series

Though I found these stories interesting, I also found them not all that imaginative. The MC Nick is a Freelance photographer and he has a pension for getting involved in various situations dealing with Murders. If main character was a woman readers would describe her as a Very Nosy busybody, but being a man he is considered helpful. The narrator does not help with a (Not monotone) voice , but lacking much emotional infliction while reading this book.

Nice collection of mysteries

This collection includes the first five books of the Capital City Murders series. This is a good collection to have handy to listen to when you go for a car ride. The main character Nick, is a photographer and is traveling to the capital cities around the country. At each stop, he always manages to  become involved in a murder investigation and help solve the mystery. The stories are short and are  standalone stories, and they will keep you engrossed till the end. I would definitely like to listen to the next set.


I received a complimentary copy from StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Good stories for a short car ride

The stories were at times engrossing and good enough to keep me driving just to listen to more. I'm looking forward to listening to the next set. The narrator left something to be desired, but I eventually got used to him. I won't be looking for other books he's read.

Good mystery

I like these mystery stories surrounding the main character, Nick. He is a photographer on an assignment to photograph the state capitals. He always manages to stumble across some type of murder where ever he travels. Each book can be read independently, but I enjoy seeing a budding romance in each of the books.

Great Boxed Set

This was a great boxed set and I have listened and reviewed each book separately. I will admit that I enjoy having the books together in one collection for my listening ease. Another round of kudos to the authors and the narrator for a job well done.

I received this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving my honest review,

Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Overdoses in Olympia
Overdoses in Olympia is an odd example of a mystery. The mystery feels like it’s competing with the protagonist to be front and center at the start. After that, it starts to feel like a subplot while you live a day in the life of uninteresting protagonist as he takes pictures.

The summary says you won’t be able to solve the mystery until the end, which is likely true. It really doesn’t give you enough to work with if you want to actually solve it as you read (or listen). There was one small detail I noticed early on that had me paying more attention to the details to see if I could figure it out. It was all for naught as there seriously wasn’t much to go on.

I think the character interaction dialogue leaves something to be desired. Though maybe it’s intended to be written less like a book and more like two people having a natural conversation.

Overall, the narration was good. I did get sick of the narrator mispronouncing prescription over and over. “Perscription” isn’t a word. I truly can’t stand narrators who mispronounce basic English words.

Review: Slaying in Salem
Bok 2 is a noticeable improvement over book 1. It focuses on totally interesting protagonist’s job, but the mystery feels more front and center. The whole thing is a bit abrupt and I’m wondering if the cops will ever start to take notice of the guy who seems to show up at every single capital as a murder is going down.

I couldn’t stop laughing at totally interesting protagonist’s 500 MB SSD. That was my flavorite part of the story. At one point, the characters kept talking about how the killer must have been left-handed, due to how the kill was done. It didn’t seem to ever cross the writer’s mind that people might be ambidextrous. I am for example. It would be all too easy to do something with one hand, then claim to be dominant with the other hand.

The narrator was alright. He did a truly lousy job of actually doing voices for characters. It doesn’t sound like 2 people having a conversation, it sounds like 1 person having a two-sided conversation. Otherwise, it was enjoyable.

Review: Strangled in Sacramento
I’m knocking points off of this book for annoying writing if you’re reading this. I’m sick of this lazy bullshit of “piercing green eyes” in fiction. Somebody wrote a blog post in 2012 pointing out this issue in fiction, meaning this has been an issue for over a decade. It’s lazy and uninspired. I highly doubt most people give random strangers eye colors a second thought in public, let alone bring it up constantly. Green-eyed people are rare, but that doesn’t make us a goddamn circus exhibit.

One of the things I can’t stand about this series is how it feels the need to make mention of interesting protagonist’s friend is a lesbian. It always mentions that there’s no chance of them dating because of this fact. Sure, somebody might pick up the books in the middle of the series for some reason. So what though? Let the writing show that they don’t have any chemistry. Just in general, the protagonist is constantly taking note of how women look or are dressed. One example is of how a woman is “wearing heels, but not too tall”. Who cares how tall her heels are?!

One thing I thought was really stupid was mentioning the protagonist “rewinding” a video. What year is this story set in? 1995? Rewind what?!? It’s a digital video, you don’t rewind it. People seriously need to update their vernacular.

Shitty writing aside, the mystery was pretty decent this time around. It didn’t feel rushed and there were some nice twists along the way.

The narration was good overall, I didn’t notice any issues with the audio or the narrator.

Review: Decapitated in Carson City
Another casual, albeit enjoyable mystery. I like how Love Interest makes a return, I was wondering if that plot thread was going anywhere or if it was just in book 3 for the sake of being there. Despite the authors bringing up Interesting Protagonist’s lesbian friend’s sexuality yet again, they at least worked it into the natural dialogue.

I’m getting very sick of Interesting Protagonist calling in a tip to the cops, only for it to be bunk and get told off. Then he calls in again and singlehandedly solves the case. It’s 4 books in and I’m sick of the same, lazy, half-assed writing showing up every time. At one point Interesting Protagonist asks how he’s going to cum up with different and interesting shots for capital buildings 50 times. It’s as if the writers lack self-awareness, as they should be asking themselves that about their mysteries.

The narration was alright. The narrator does a good job of emoting, but not making each character feel distinct and unique. Most characters sound the same when speaking.

Review: Buried in Boise
The writing for this series seems to finally be getting better. Not by much, mind you. The authors still felt the need to bring up how Interesting Protagonit’s lesbian friend is a lesbian. they managed to bring it up naturally in dialogue in book 4, so this is a regression, quality-wise.

I love Mysteries. They’re my flavorite types of stories to listen to and read, alongside thrillers. I’m not one to attempt to figure out the mystery, I prefer to let it unfold naturally. In this instance, it may as well have had a neon sign pointing towards the outcum. There was a twist I wasn’t able to put together, not that I was trying. I’d say it’s a much better mystery than book 4, at least.

Continuing the cumparison with book 4, book 4 it felt like it was in and out in no time. There wasn’t much to the mystery and the story was overall disappointing. Book 5 was mostly world-building and didn’t repeat a lot of the plot points that were getting annoying in the other books. It sucks that it took 5 books for the writing to (mostly) improve, but it does make my outlook on the future novels more bright.

The narration overall was alright. I got sick of him constantly saying “O” instead of “Zero” for numbers. O isn’t a number, I will never stop finding that insufferably annoying. I always get a chuckle out of him having to narrate Interesting Protagonist’s parents over the phone. He does those scenes so well, I forget it’s an audiobook in those moments.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.