Murder by the Book

Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery, Book 1

By: Lauren Elliott

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

Addie Greyborne loved working with rare books at the Boston Public Library - she even got to play detective, tracking down clues about mysterious old volumes. But she didn't expect her sleuthing skills to come in so handy in a little seaside town....  

Addie left some painful memories behind in the big city, including the unsolved murder of her fiance and her father's fatal car accident. After an unexpected inheritance from a great aunt, she's moved to a small New England town founded by her ancestors back in colonial times - and living in spacious Greyborne Manor, on a hilltop overlooking the harbor. Best of all, her aunt also left her countless first editions and other treasures - providing an inventory to start her own store.   

But there's trouble from day one, and not just from the grumpy woman who runs the bakery next door. A car nearly runs Addie down. Someone steals a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Then, Addie's friend Serena, who owns a nearby tea shop, is arrested - for killing another local merchant. The police seem pretty sure they've got the story in hand, but Addie's not going to let them close the book on this case without a fight....

©2018 Lauren Elliot (P)2018 Tantor

Narrator Not Appropriate

The narrator killed the story. I want to hear the next book but the narrators voice was very grating to me. I want listen to the next book, but can’t.

OMG the narration is PAINFUL

I’m not sure if I can make this till the end. Who in the world would give this review a score of more than 1, maybe 2 if you are very very very kind? Make it STOP

Great start to a new series!

I was happily surprised with this mystery. The bases of the story is a bit extreme, but I decided to give it a go and really enjoyed the story. It gives me the good feeling of a old time novels. I can see it like a "murder she wrote", but you have have a well to do store keeper and a friend who is a cop solving the mysteries. Fun.

Well written by Lauren Elliott and Karen White's narration make for a great match.
I will be purchasing book 2.

Narrator made a so-so book awful

This story wasn’t bad, just so-so. The main character was a little hard to believe, quickly over reacting to the smallest thing. I wanted to tell her to chill out. It made me feel exhausted just listening to it.
The narrator made it worse by making the character sound practically hysterical in the frequent scenes. Her style of over-enunciating also made it difficult to listen to.
And what’s with all the “playfully slapping?”
I was ready to discover a new series to enjoy but this wasn’t it.

I Tried

I really tried to like this book...to stick with it. But I couldn't. I lasted about halfway and had to stop. The narration was good, and the story could have been good, but the author used far too many descriptors...describing each and every step the characters took.

And nobody just walked across the room...they bounded, trotted, sped, dashed, spun, darted, rushed. And there was far too many people winking.

I tried though. I really did!

Murder by the Book

Loved the first book of this series. I am looking forward to reading more of these books. Lots of thrills and excitement in this book! Enjoy!

The Voice

The narrator for this book was painful to listen to. If she narrates the other books, I won't be buying them.
The story isn't bad though, so buy the book.

Cleché

Uses pretty much all the stereotypical devices. Over dramatic characters. If this was planned to be the 1st in a series there should have been left more for the relationships to build. The mystery was not difficult. I don’t mind that too much, but the characters and relationships are heavy handed, and forced. Narrator was ok given what she had to work with.

Disappointing and predictable

Addison is just too dumb. The concept had merit but too much was obvious before the heroine figured it out.

Great Read

I loved this book and I look forward to a sequel. The characters were lovable and the plot was well thought out.