Bite the Biscuit: A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery

The Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries, Book 1

By: Linda O. Johnston

Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Carrie Kennersly, a veterinary technician, has become known for baking healthful and popular dog treats at the clinic where she works, in the town of Knobcone Heights, California. When a friend moves away, Carrie buys her bakery and converts half into a Barkery to sell her canine delights. Carrie even works things out for her beloved rescue dog Biscuit to hang out in the dog part of the enterprise.

But Myra and Harris Ethman, who own a local store selling pet products, hate the new competition - and they're members of one of the town's most elite families. After publicly badmouthing Carrie and antagonizing family and other townsfolk with her big mouth, Myra is found dead with a Barkery biscuit beside her. Now Carrie must prove she didn't consider the rivalry, nor Myra's nasty criticisms, a sufficient motive to commit murder - before she's collared for the crime.

©2015 Linda O. Johnston (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great new to me series!

This is a must listen for fur parents and cozy mystery fans! The narrator was delightful as well

a lot of talk about treats

this was an ok book to lighten to while doing other things. I started too feel there was a lot of filler talk as the narrator spent a lot of time taking about the treats, where she passed them out, and I started too feel like it's I here the word great one more time..I also guess who did it very really on, I the she kind of telegraphed it. I'm not usually good at guessing. it could have been shorter or more fleshed with better character development.

good premises

I feel very conflicted about this book series. I liked the story in general, it has a good plot. However, I am not a big fan of the amount of details provided throughout the story. it makes sense to provide details when a writer wants to paint an scene with words, wants us to visualize what they are imagining, but when it comes to details/thoughts (of the protagonist) that are very obvious/unnecessary is quite annoying.
like at some point after a successful treatment of an animal was over, the doctor told the patient owner to go to the front to pick up something for the pet. and Carrie thinks something along the lines of "and pay as well". unnecessary thought. unless what the author wants Carrie's personality be annoying. in that case, mission accomplished.
I also don't like the fact she was saved by one of her flirtation interests and she mentions being annoyed about it and she had guessed who the culprit was minutes before the culprit had shown up. even if she had known, that didn't mean she could have saved herself.
I also dislike her insecurity. at some point on of her flirtation interests (characters in the story that pay other functions other than flirting with Carrie) speaks/responds a bit harsh (he is upset about something) she immediately thinks "I thought he liked me"
however, even with all that I enjoyed the book and I'm in the second one of the series

Good book

A little slow to start, but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down!

Cute

Cute storyline. Quite a bit of repetition sometimes. Would be better with more thoughts from the characters. Narrator ok.

Wordy, Simple, But Clean Story

I'm a fan of cozy mysteries, but several times I almost stopped listening to this one. The premise of a dog bakery and a human bakery side by side is a bit strange to me, but I can buy it . . . almost. The owner, Carrie Kennersly, is a naïve young woman, who questions herself with every decision and changes her mind frequently. She's too trusting, putting herself in dangerous situations repeatedly. Another problem for me was that I didn't immediately find myself getting attached to the characters in the story, as I usually do in cozy mysteries. I do appreciate that there are no sex scenes or bad language, always a turn off for me. This series may fit the bill for some, but for me, I think I will skip the remainder.

The Enunciation

The enunciation of the words took some time getting used to but eventually I was OK. I thought the story wrapped up to quick. Overall not bad!

Great book and interesting story

I enjoyed it although as some other readers mentioned. There were a lot of fillers and I disliked how the bitch treatment was given to the main character as if it was ok to be that rude without any consequences. overall it was a nice commute book.

didn't care for style

written in narrative of the main character including her thoughts, it was like having a diary read to you. Her voice was monotone as well.

some good some not so good

it is a cute idea with some good characters (her brother, her vet friends) but the main character protagonist was not very consistent. sometimes she had a spine, sometimes she was a sniveling wreck over being considered a suspect. there was an unexplained mistrust and uncooperative spirit towards the police, who seemed actually to be quite nice, yet she was unreasonably unwilling to tell them anything to explain her innocence and instead just writhed in her own self pity and terror at being considered a suspect. it was really frustrating to listen to the protagonist at several points as I was saying to myself "that's not what she would do, why is she doing that. come on, really?" The author took some turns when i frankly did not want to get on board and go for the ride. There was no evidence discussed for the mystery, and was all based on feelings about people and personal perceptions... it was a cute idea with some really good parts, but the characters need work and the story needs more hooks. i thought "why do I care? when is something exciting going to happen?" it needs a little more to grab the reader and make them want to find out more.