Hushabye: A Kate Redman Mystery, Book 1

By: Celina Grace

Narrated by: Samara Naeymi

Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A missing baby. A murdered girl. A case where everyone has something to hide....

On the first day of her new job in the West Country, Detective Sergeant Kate Redman finds herself investigating the kidnapping of Charlie Fullman, the newborn son of a wealthy entrepreneur and his trophy wife. It seems a straightforward case...but as Kate and her fellow officer Mark Olbeck delve deeper, they uncover murky secrets and multiple motives for the crime.

Kate finds the case bringing up painful memories of her own past secrets. As she confronts the truth about herself, her increasing emotional instability threatens both her hard-won career success and the possibility that they will ever find Charlie Fullman alive....

©2013 Celina Grace (P)2015 Celina Grace

Light Mystery

It has a couple of.twists. Mostly easy reading light mystery. I would recommend it for easy reading

Lots of suspects

Enjoyed the narration and the story. A nice respite for a few hours. While I considered the final fiend as a suspect I dismissed the suspect for other possibilities as the story unfolded. Enjoying the development of the main characters and looking forward to getting to learn more about them with book 2. I need to find out why Kate changed her name from Kelly.

Solid British Crime Mystery, Kidnapped Baby

Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is assigned to the case of a murdered nanny and kidnapped three month old baby boy . . . the baby's mother is devastated, and the father is too busy taking phone calls to keep his business on track to get very involved with the case . . . Kate uncovers plenty of skeletons in the closet, so to speak . . . but her gut instinct tells her that her partner, DS Olbeck is on the wrong track . . . all in all this is a great murder/crime mystery . . . I could have done without the gay relationship of DS Olbeck and his partner, Joe . . . but it wasn't a huge part of the story . . . I will definitely listen to the next in the series . . .

A decent start to a series

This was a quick read/listen and was a completely acceptable book. It didn't compel me in any way to rate it higher than 3. We meet Kate as she enters a new police department and is assigned the case of a missing infant and a murdered nanny. The story plays out well enough. We learn a bit about Kate's police partner and of Kate's history. I'm assuming the stories will be fleshed out in subsequent books.

I liked this enough to try Book 2.

Love this book. It kept me questioning who did it

I also was surprised at who had the baby. . was good listening.

sent this book back.

I made the decision to return the book as the narrater came across as boring. There were too many discrepancies in the accents of various characters and all blended into one.
Also the story itself wasn't gripping enough to enable me to continue despite the narration.

An intriguing read. Great characters.

I felt compassion for all the characters, even the shady ones. Character development is important to me, and it met my expectations there. The story did connect the dots and it all made sense in the end. Some stories leave you hanging to much and I hate that. This story delivered in those 2 areas. The reason I gave it 4 out of 5 is because some stories take your breath away and stay with you years after you read it. This story wasn't like that, but it was a good solid read, thus, 4 out of 5.

Love this Book!

Love this story and especially Kate! Her very human struggles with life and her job made me feel like I was cheering on a good friend. Can't wait to read and listen to more.

Could not get into it

Listened on Audible

Found it slow moving, boring. Usually do not quot mod-book but did here.

Okay story, very predictable, horrible narration!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

tThe story was okay, I guess I should not complain since it was an addition after the kindle book was free, but I did actually pay for the narration, so my complaint with that is valid. As far as the book/story goes, I will not make the mistake of reading another by this author. I have learned my lesson. I listened, because I was on the freeway already, but I was not made richer by the time spent. I really should have changed to another audiobook when I stopped for gas, but always seemed to forget after I got back on he road.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

meh

How could the performance have been better?

the story was okay, but the narration was abysmal!! Women should not attempt to narrate the male parts unless they can actually pull it off convincingly. To have her not only try to take on a deep male voice but a heavy Scottish accent on top of it(if that was actually what she intended?) was almost horrid enough to have me consider tossing the audiobook. I listen to them when in the car and that was the only reason that I listened to the whole thing-it would have been dangerous to try to change audiobooks on the freeway.Message to publishers, and narrators of both genders: Please be honest with yourselves. If you are not able to pull off convincing voices of all the characters, then please hire another narrator to play those not of your gender. It was VERY distracting every time she launched into the boss' parts, which gratefully did not happen as often as the woman detective and other female characters. Sort of like trying to listen to someone speak with constant screech of fingernails on a chalkboard in the background--pleasant, eh?When a reader is listening to an audiobook, there should be seamless and imperceptible changes between characters, no matter the gender and/or accents. I know that it can be done as I have had the pleasure of listening to books narrated by some very talented men and women. I did not notice that a man was speaking in a high pitched voice of a woman then switching back to a young man, then an old man, than a young child, etc. If it is done well, then there should not be any note taken of the change in each voice, it should just sound as if the entire cast of characters are gathered in the studio, each reading their parts...when it is only one, perhaps two narrators. It is very distracting to be made aware of the inability of a narrator to pull it off.

Could you see Hushabye: A Kate Redman Mystery, Book 1 being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, please NO