Caught Dead Handed

Witch City Mystery, Book 1

By: Carol J. Perry

Narrated by: C.S.E Cooney

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Most folks associate the city of Salem, Massachusetts, with witches, but for Lee Barrett it's home. This October she's returned to her hometown - where her beloved Aunt Ibby still lives - to interview for a job as a reporter at WICH-TV. But the only opening is for a call-in psychic to host the late-night horror movies. It seems the previous host, Ariel Constellation, never saw her own murder coming.

Lee reluctantly takes the job, but when she starts seeing real events in the obsidian ball she's using as a prop, she wonders if she might really have psychic abilities. To make things even spookier, it's starting to look like Ariel may have been an actual practicing witch - especially when O'Ryan, the cat Lee and Aunt Ibby inherited from her, exhibits some strange powers of his own.

With Halloween fast approaching, Lee must focus on unmasking a killer - or her career as a psychic may be very short lived.

©2014 Carol J. Perry (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The atmosphere of this mystery is delightfully spooky, and the psychic elements add mystical touches that enhance the plot." ( RT Book Reviews)

Unusual and interesting story, awful reader

A few aspects of this book made it especially unusual. Without giving too much away, what I mean, are the psychological history and relationships of some of the main characters.
Unfortunately, the person who read the book was the worst reader I've ever heard! She read the book in a completely flat voice, and at the same time, over-annunciated constantly. This distracted from enjoying the story. It might have been much better than I thought it was, had it been read by a professional.

Good read

enjoyed the book,wished reader voice wasn't so flat, but plot was great. will get the next one ,
, since I already have the print one.

Predictable

I enjoyed this audible book but I could see the “big plot twist” a mile off. The other annoying thing is the narrators breathy performance. It’s like she’s trying to make every female sound like Marilyn Monroe.

Shows promise, but...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Sadly, I can't recommend this particular book. The writing is perfectly serviceable and the character is fairly likable. However (CONTAINS SPOILERS)



The solution to the mystery is A) fairly obvious and the protagonist just remains oblivious for far longer than she should.
B) Incredibly transphobic. This is the sort of story that we saw all over the place in the mid-90's thrillers like Sliver. It's outdated and unfortunate and kept me from enjoying the story.

Cats Meow

Great book. Reader has very nice voice. Classic style mystery which is interesting and yet makes you smile.

Really good book!

Loved the characters and the story. A few sad topics but thoroughly enjoyed! Get it!

good first book in a series

the book started slowly, wasn't sure I would be able to get into it. The narrator seemed unsure as well, almost as if this was her first time reading aloud. But this quickly changed. I got into the story, the narrator became more relaxed and sure of herself and the story grew more compelling.

The cat on the cover caught my eye. The cat is an integral part of the story, but not the main character. He plays an important supporting role. His actions are typically feline and very believable.

This story has a character with a mental health issue. Can't say what it is or that will give away part of the story. Book includes some good information on the condition in one of its many guises.

This story has the usual cast of characters: those you want to dislike, those you want to like, those you want to avoid, those you don't trust, those you want on your side. The fun is figuring out where each character actually fits.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Loved it!

Didn't like the narrator at first..now I can't wait for the next book! Good story too.

Good Start to Series

I really enjoyed this book. Some of that may be to the fact I had listened to a couple of very disappointing books for this one. The mystery was interesting and the flow of the book was fast-paced. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and settings for the book and it setup the future series very well.

I enjoyed all the characters in the book. Which is surprising for me because there is usually at least one character that annoys me. I liked the main characters of Lee and her aunt, the police and all of the supporting characters at the television station.

The book lost a star in rating because the last quarter of the book was pointless. The solution was obvious to everyone but it appeared the author needed to make the book last longer. The author accomplished this by having all the characters lose their intelligence and just basically ignore all the clues. It was not needed and made the book drag on way too long. Also the finale was a little anti-climactic.

The narrator was really good especially when Lee was “On-Air” as her TV persona.

Better than expected!

This was a fun listen. The plot twist was darker than I anticipated for this type of book. The narrator was great. She didn’t overact and wasn’t whining through the female dialogue. Could have used more cat but that’s just me.