Batten Down the Belfry

A House-Flipper Mystery, Book 4

By: Diane Kelly

Narrated by: Courtney Patterson

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Here is the church, here is the steeple....

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck have successfully flipped houses, but this is the first time they've attempted to renovate a house of worship. Still, the colorful stained glass in the country church has caught Whitney's eye, and she'd love to breathe new life into the abandoned building. What's more, the place has perfect acoustics. Could the worship hall be reborn as an entertainment venue with its parsonage repurposed as a pre-show bistro?

Open the doors, and see all the trouble.

The owner of the horse farm next door has asserted a legal claim to the church property, rendering their title uncertain. If that's not bad enough, while rehabbing the church, Whitney's cat, Sawdust, discovers a bombshell in the bell tower - the body of the man who'd delivered their beautiful new replacement windows. What transpired in the spire? Who rang the man's bell and why?

The steeple is keeping its secrets, and when a second body turns up, things become even less clear. Can Whitney help Detective Collin Flynn solve the crimes before someone else is sent to meet their maker?

©2022 Diane Kelly (P)2022 Tantor

Great plot twists!

law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, relatives, relationships, amateur-sleuth, renovation, cozy-mystery, friendship, small-business, Tennessee, artist, restaurant, rural*****

Great story! Cousins Whitney and Buck are flippers with imagination. This time they've bought an old church and rectory and decide to turn the church into a Playhouse and the rectory into a restaurant operated by Whitney's housemate. One visionary expense is to leave the few stained-glass windows in place and go to a glass artist to create four others. On the day that the windows are delivered, the delivery man is murdered in the belfry. There is also a major problem with the nasty man next door who uses taser on his horses and thinks that he owns everything. Let the sleuthing begin! Whitney has an edge because her boyfriend is a Nashville homicide detective, but they find more red herrings and plot twists than usual. A Good Read!
I won the print copy in a GoodReads Giveaway back in March courtesy of St. Martin's Paperbacks and started to read it (takes me awhile because of vision issues) but then it walked away with a friend. I have it back now but will pass it on to my local library. I have just bought and finished the audio narrated by voice actor Courtney Patterson!

Solid mystery with heart

This is a good story but maybe not D. Kelly at her best. I’m a fan and have about 15 of her books on Audible, listening to each series multiple times. I love the Whitney character and the previous narrator Sophie Amoss really appealed to me, getting Whitney’s naïveté and sweetness across, with a great southern accent too. The new narrator is fine but I lost the feel for Whitney somehow, like when a character in a tv show has to be replaced. There were some obvious clues that were overlooked too. Not as tight as it could be. However with all my griping I still love Diane Kelly’s knack for creating heroines who aren’t rich beauties, but decent folk. And Sawdust her cat is lovable.

Batten Down the Belfry

Excellent story. Looking forward to the next book. I have listened to the first three books now and can't wait for the next house flipper mystery. Thank you for your great writing!

A little bit of everything

Creative repurposing of the property
Creative animal revenge
Good cop BAD cop
Local, national and international intrigue

Terrific and fun read - all and everyone delightful - especially lead character and animals!!!!

Fabulous read - great characters and fun and interesting story line. Highly recommend all this author’s work!!!!!

This series is running formulaic now

I enjoyed the first couple of House-Flipper Mysteries. The characters were well connected; the ongoing motif of a house reclamation company was interesting; the growth of the central character and her circumstances developed well; the introduction of the love interest was charming if a bit predictable.

But by this fourth one, the author has lost her ability to craft interesting situations. There are WAY too many hours of description dedicated to decor and design planning. One wants to shout, "Cut the fill and get on with the plot, please!" The little chapters dedicated to the cat's point of view are distracting and don't carry the story any further. The protagonist repeatedly warns herself that a situation might be dangerous for her, but still goes where the danger is. The love interest is really too weak to be believable as a police officer.

The first three books are enjoyable, but I cannot recommend purchasing any more of this series.