Murder Club

Jergen County, Book 1

By: Richard Powell

Narrated by: David Karel

“For us, murder is a hobby,” the writer’s group president informs the detectives as they arrive. “We look forward to seeing real police procedure.” A prominent author dies at a mystery writers retreat. Is it natural causes or was she murdered?

The detectives have never worked together before. Each has their own motivations as they approach the case.

Recently promoted to investigations, Deputy Sheriff Christine Urich is eager to succeed. Show she is not just a pretty face promoted to make the Department look fair.

The lead Detective, Robert Jordan, struggles with demons of his own. His career circles the drain after being hounded out of Memphis Homicide. Landing in this rural county, Jordan seems content to finish his career making as few waves as possible.

As they struggle to build a working relationship, they discover that all those attending had strong motives to kill the victim.

Are the writers interested in watching the police at work or is one or more of them killers covering their trail while pretending to cooperate? Can the detectives put their differences aside and bring the killer to justice?

©2017 Richard Powell (P)2020 Richard Powell

Fun Read

Thus book was a fun read; I practically devoured it. I especially enjoyed the narration by David Karel. His voices and accents helped paint a picture of the characters.

Awful! NOT A Cozy Mystery

Note-I did not finish this book. I only made it to Chapter 8 before deciding I would not give any more of my time to it.
I chose this book on the recommendation of a cozy mystery writer that I adore. Apparently, this book qualifies as a cozy because the death involved was not graphic. It certainly does not meet my other criteria for a cozy, no severe profanity (F or GD) and no graphic sex scenes. This book definitely failed the test.
I feel that the writing was unpolished and very amateurish. In fact, I have read projects by amateurs that were much more entertaining than this. If this was the author’s first book and he improved with his future books, then he should edit this book and reissue it.
The narrator most assuredly made this book worse. His Southern accents were horrible. Additionally, he made the characters sound cartoonish.
Finally, as a person with 23 years in a 12-step program, I was insulted by the way alcoholism, sobriety and The Program were represented.