Deal Gone Dead

A Lily Sprayberry Realtor Cozy Mystery, Book 1

By: Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Narrated by: Stephanie Quinn

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Meet Lily Sprayberry. Selling homes is her career. Solving murders, her calling. 

There’s money buried somewhere on Myrtle Redbecker’s property, and people are dying to find out where. Literally.

When Bramblett County, Georgia’s number one realtor, Lily Sprayberry, finds her cantankerous older client dead on the kitchen floor, she lands herself smack-dab in the middle of a long-running property battle and a 100-year-old rumor. Lily made a promise to sell Myrtle’s land whether her client’s alive or not. But whoever wants that money doesn’t want the property to sell and will do whatever’s necessary to stop her. 

Can Lily keep her promise, or will she wind up another victim in this deal gone dead?

Listen now!

©2018, 2019 Carolyn Ridder Aspenson (P)2019 Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Just Okay

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and any opinions expressed herein are my own.

I am a cozy junkie. So, I am always looking and willing to try a new cozy series. However, I didn't really love this series but I didn't dislike it either. I liked the MC Lily and there is some fun humor in this series. It also has a spooky treasure story. What's not to like? I don't like whiny characters and I felt there was quite a bit of whining related to Lily and her former boyfriend, now Sheriff, Dylan's relationship. Every time they interacted, I just could not wait until the scene would end. [I am a believer in love just not whiny indecisiveness]. It was light on the mystery as well - I was able to determine the culprit fairly quickly and I so wanted the characters to be better at solving the crime than I was.

The narrator, Stephanie Quinn, had a nice southern accent for the entire narration. She provided various different voices to distinguish the characters. I found listening to her to be very enjoyable.

Being a Realtor Can be Deadly

Lily Sprayberry is a successful realtor. Right now she's dealing with a difficult client, a property dispute, hidden money and murder. It impressed me that she made all the craziness look easy. She's a sweet Southern bell but she has a backbone of steel. When Lily finds Myrtle's body, she's determined to find the person responsible. The Sheriff, Dylan Roberts, is her ex-boyfriend. The attraction is still there even though he left her. Their reaction to each other made me smile. The victim was a difficult person. She had many enemies and a few secrets. There were many twists that kept me guessing. I liked the characters with their sassy dialogue especially her BFF, Belle Pyott. This small town filled with quirky people added drama to the story. I like the writing style of Carolyn Ridder Aspenson. Her characters are original and her storylines fast paced. This is a great start to the Lily Sprayberry Realtor Cozy Mystery series. I especially enjoyed this audiobook. Stephanie Quinn did a wonderful job with her narration. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Annoying

Deal Gone Bad is not the worst book I've listened to, but it's not the best. The story was a bit flat and formulaic. The character development was ok. What I found annoying were constant references to Dylan's mouth twitching. Why can't the man smile? The author makes it seem like he has a facial tick. I also didn't like the character of Belle. I realize that she is suppose to provide comic relief, but she comes off as insensitive and flighty. The author also spends too much time on Lily's relationship with Dylan. We get it, He broke her heart. Yet, every five minutes we are reminded of their broken relationship and it's so obvious that they will get back together. I also didn't like that the characters kept saying that the victim was a mean old lady but you had to respect her. I can't really recommend this book and I won't be getting anymore in this series.

SOOO CUTE!!!!

This is the start of such a cute Cozie Mystery Series!! You will find your self caught up in Lily's world and you never want it to end!!!

Charming and Southern

I adored the sweet southern charm in this new cozy mystery from Carolyn Ridder Aspenson. With the author’s eye for details I was easily transported to Bramblett County. From page one I was hooked by the shocking murder of Mrytle Mae Redbeckere. My “who done it” list was surprisingly long for such a small, close knit community. Aspenson weaved quite the web and left me changing my suspect list several times.

This a perfect weekend read that flowed nicely with an intriguing storyline and complex characters. I look forward to reading other books in the series.

The Narrator
Stephanie Quinn was the perfect narrator for this sweet southern mystery! I laughed so hard throughout the story. She was the epitome of southern grace.

Good Story & narration

Lily has a grumbling old man as a client that is next to impossible to deal with, when he turns up dead. She made a promise to sell the land, and having to deal with all the rumors on top of a murder. Given audio for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

author good, narrator not so much

I really like this author's "Angela Panther" series. She writes a funny satisfying series there. But despite trying this entire series more than once, I just can't get into it.

Part of it is that I'm not tremendously interested in realtors. Then there is that this is not a paranormal (as Aspenson's Angela Panther series is). Mostly what bothers me about this is that the main character repeatedly involves herself with dangerous people and situations without a real reason we can agree with. She is just this side of TSTL, which makes me sad for Aspenson because I know that she can write a story that provides characters with legitimate or at least understandable reasons for disobeying the law, putting herself in danger, etc.

The narrator doesn't help. Her voicing of the main character contributes to the sense that she is irresponsible and unjustified when she walks into danger. And what is with the narrator's "old coot" voice? I also think she misses some of the inflections the author intended, making us miss some important tidbits--not good for a mystery-- and some witty bits..

I give this series a "pretty good" 3 stars across the board. The narrator gets a 1 though.

I received free copies of this entire series, which was dang generous, and I'm grateful while also sorry to have to give bad feedback.

Sweet Southern Cozy

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a sweet cozy mystery with a likeable main character. I did not like the relationship with her ex at all but maybe I will understand their relationship better in the next book. I loved the narrator's southern accent but I did not really enjoy her male voices and some of the older women's voices.