Killer Edition

Booktown Mystery, Book 13

By: Lorna Barrett

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Murder's in the mix for mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Tricia Miles, in the latest entry of Lorna Barrett's New York Times best-selling Booktown series.

With her assistant, Pixie, picking up more responsibility around the shop, Tricia Miles suddenly has a lot more time on her hands. Tricia decides to join the local animal-rescue board and enter the Great Stoneham Bake-Off, but neither pans out as smoothly as she'd hoped.

Balancing a bake-off that's heating up with a frosty reception from the board, Tricia stops by Joyce Whitman's romance bookstore looking for a book to get her fired up. She stumbles on something hot, but it's an argument between Joyce and her neighbor Vera Olson instead of a steamy read. When Vera turns up dead in Joyce's garden hours later, Tricia has to wonder - could Joyce be the killer? Or is the culprit still lurking in town?

One thing is for sure, someone in Stoneham is stirring up something more sinister than sweet. Tricia is determined to win the cutthroat cooking contest, but first she will have to make sure no one else is in danger of getting burned....

©2019 Penguin Random House LLC (P)2019 Tantor

Final chapter in the series? I hope so!

First, I believe I have the "credentials" to back my review as I have listened to the entire series and always looked forward to the next installment.

Sadly, and with great shock, Cassandra Campbell's narration was lackluster and very distracting from an already "so-so" slow story.

If you don't already know, Cassandra Campbell is not new to this series; she narrated a few of the earlier books which were great listens. When Karen White jumped in I hoped she could keep up the level of performance I was used to. Wow! Karen White rocked.

Back to "Killer Edition"...Immediately I couldn't figure out who was narrating. Where'd Karen go? When I finally read who the narrator was I was dumbfounded. What happened to the "old" Cassandra Campbell? There's no life in her characters! And it sounded like my narration speed was on "slow" when it was actually just normal speed.

Add to the poor narration a very drawn out story filled with, as another listener said, drinking and whiny women, I was very disappointed. I had always envisioned Tricia's character as a strong, independent, curious woman but she is definitely in a funk in this story.

With all that said, I didn't even finish it. Both the story and narration are just too slow and uninteresting. Perhaps time to end the series. Sorry Lorna.

missing Karen White

Love the series, have them all, but this book disappoints with the new narrator. I hate when two strong women suddenly become whiny and high pitched with a narrator change. Lots of drinking in this book too, What's up with that? How can these two hard working women drink pitchers of martinis EVERY night? And why is it "the best part" of their day? That story line bothers me. Sadly, I'll wait for the reviews and who's narrating on the next book before I purchase it. I guess all good things must come to an end, but such is life.

Enjoyed the story

This is a favorite series of mine and the new book was good. I am missing the other narrator. Pixie just isn’t the same.

White vs Campbell

Prefer Karen White as the narrator of the Booktown Mystery series. It took me a while to distinguish which character was speaking with Cassandra Campbell's narration.

Please replace the narrator

I’ve listened to the whole series but this one was as exciting as watching paint dry. I had no clue which character was talking most of the time and Pixie’s character was not the same. The story was ok but it was so hard to follow with no inflection of voice between characters. If the series is to continue I will wait to see the narrator before purchasing.

Terrible narrator where is Karen White?

This can not be the same Cassandra Campbell who narrates the first books in this series. It can’t be. It’s simply awful. I’ve listened to all the other books in this series, but this one I am having trouble staying with because if the absolutely flat dismal performance. So disappointing, the narrator destroys the story.

New narrator

Sadly, the new narration completely changed the character voices. As a result, the story was rather lackluster. It was like the real characters went on vacation and were replaced by stand-ins. I missed the real ones.

Disappointed

Could not keep up with store. Had a very difficult time falling store line. Didn’t know was talking. I listen to all 13 stories. This one I didn’t care if I finish it or not.

just ok

it seems like the writer is getting board with this series. performance full and flat

Where is Karen White

The story was pretty good, but the narrator annoyed me. Karen White's character voices seemed to fit each character. This narrator made everyone have an annoyingly mousey voice, even Trixie, who was supposed to be older. She made Trixie sound like a 20- something year old woman. She frustrated me the entire narration!