Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs

The Little Old Lady Solves Another Crime

By: G M Dobbs

Narrated by: Fiona Thraille

"It’s Miss Marple on steroids!"

"Batman with dentures!"

Another murder rocks the small Welsh town of Gilfach - the police are baffled, the corpse is getting colder, and only Granny Smith, the intrepid pensioner sleuth, stands between justice and all out anarchy.

Granny has a talent for mayhem, and soon those talents are put to good use as our intrepid pensioner starts to unravel the case, which finds her provoking Chief Inspector Miskin as she comes up against a full-scale police investigation, proving that you’re never too old to make a nuisance of yourself and that 71 is actually the new 21.

©2015 Gary Dobbs (P)2018 Gary Martin Dobbs

Good promise without delivering

In <strong>Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs</strong> by G.M. Dobbs, septuagenarian Mary Smith, known to all as Granny Smith, gets involved in protesting a development in her small Welsh town. A fellow protester, Mansel, believes that the pond where the development is scheduled to take place contains endangered lesser crested frogs, so he calls in an expert, who determines that the frogs are common frogs and not the endangered ones. Upon learning this fact, Granny goes to the pond to remove the flyers about the frogs, only to discover the body of Carol Hamish, a fellow protester, floating dead with her eyes open in the pond. Granny finds the prospect of getting involved in another murder case stimulating and determines to get to the bottom of the case.

I wasn't as impressed by this book as by the previous book, though it still was a lot of fun. The mystery plot itself does not take the twists and turns of the prior book. Instead, it fills much of its plot with Granny's son's announcement that he is gay and getting married. I found it a fresh touch to have a gay marriage planned, as I have previously noted that it is rare in cozy mysteries to have gay characters, but it filled too much of the book and began to feel as if the author was trying to prove his support of the institution rather than just use it as a plot point.

I was disappointed in the language used in this book. It dropped the F- bomb a number of times and described naked people at least twice. While we don't see any actual sex scenes, the material is graphic enough that combined with the language, I do not think this book should be classified as a cozy mystery, as the first book clearly is. That made me unhappy.

The characters in <strong>Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs</strong> were its redemption. Granny comes alive in a way that I really love her. Her memories of her "wild child" days, compared with the person she has become, add humor to the book. Her use of a pipe, which we usually associate with men, also added to her interest as a woman who will do her own thing. The other character who especially made me smile was Special Constable David Davies, known to his friends as "Die Two Times." Not a regular member of the police but desperately trying to convince them that they need him, "Two Times" assists Granny in her snooping to serve as a mole for the police department. One memorable scene takes place when someone hits the police car he is driving to take Granny home, and Two Times becomes incapacitated from driving. So Granny, who has had get license revoked for too many violations, gets behind the wheel and takes him on a high speed chase that ends with her ramming the other vehicle a couple times.

I really enjoyed the performance of Fiona Thraille in this book. She adds a lot of flavor and joy to the story and performs excellent voices for each of the characters, especially that of Granny. Her expressions and timing make the book effective as well.

In sum, I was not as happy with <strong>Granny and the Deadly Frogs</strong> as I expected to be. I did highly enjoy being reunited with Granny and all her cohorts. But I was disappointed in the agenda for gsy marriage that the book seemed to push and especially in the depictions of naked people. The book started with great promise in dealing with the issue of the frogs, but they got dropped on the side somewhere. If the author had stuck with that plot element, I think it would have been a much better book. I thus give this book three stars.

<strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook BOOM, but that had no influence on the content of my terview.

Imagine Miss Marple rocking out to Hard Rock..

Granny Smith was a wild child during the 1960's & 70's. She lived a full life then and sees no reason why reaching her 70's should change that. Amateur super sleuth she may be, but will she be able to juggle her son's unexpected wedding, saving the frog's breeding pond and the finding the killer? This book takes a baseball bat to the traditional portrait of "elderly little old lady sleuths" and repaints them as the aging hippies,flower children and hard rock fans they are today. Enjoyable listen and I look forward to the next one...maybe we'll find out that Granny has a tatoo of a marijuana leaf! I received this audiobook as a promotional copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This little old lady rocks!

Granny Smith is awesome. The whodunnit was quick. There was only a short list of suspects but I made the correct choice. The fun in this listen was having Granny Smith spearhead the investigation, whether the police liked it or not.

I liked the narrator. There was a good mix of Welsh characters and the narrator performed them beautifully.

Fun Mystery!

This would be a cozy mystery if it wasn't for the sexual references. The main Granny character is really quirky. It had laugh out loud funny parts. I really enjoyed it! It is the 2nd in the series but stands alone. I would like to hear the other book in the series now.

I was gifted a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Not what I expected!

G M Dobbs is a new author to me. The premise of a little old lady solving a crime was appealing. The story got muddled when the author tried including gay and lesbian relationships into the story. That took away from the mystery as it was blatant that LGBT was focus and not a cozy mystery. There were some interesting twists, but the story was very far fetched. Fiona Thraille did a good performance. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I would not have listened to the book if I knew it was a LGBT story disguised as a cozy mystery.

Not for me

I was gifted this audio book with the understanding that I would leave an honest review. Well honestly I don't see the attraction to this book. With all the 4 and 5 star reviews and the fact that it was mentioned as being like Miss Marple I thought I would love it. Not! I did enjoy the narration by Fiona Thralle I thought she did a wonderful job of reading this story just wish I had enjoyed the story. This is the first Granny Smith book I have read. I seem to be the minority so give the book a chance and make up your own mind.