Murder in a Teacup

Tea by the Sea Mysteries, Book 2

By: Vicki Delany

Narrated by: Shaina Summerville

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

National best-selling author Vicki Delany's delightful Tea by the Sea mystery series continues, as Cape Cod tearoom proprietress and part-time sleuth Lily Roberts stirs up trouble when she unwittingly serves one of her grandmother's B&B guests a deadly cup of tea....

Lily has her work cut out for her when a visit from her grandmother Rose's dear friend Sandra McHenry turns into an unexpected - and unpleasant - McHenry family reunion. The squabbling boils over, and soon Tea by the Sea's serene afternoon service resembles the proverbial tempest in a teapot. Somehow, Lily and her tearoom survive the storm, and Sandra's bickering brethren finally retreat to Rose's B&B. But later that evening, a member of their party - curmudgeonly Ed French - dies from an apparent poisoning, and suddenly Tea by the Sea is both scene and suspect in a murder investigation!

Mercifully, none of the other guests fall ill. So it seems, amid the whining and dining, someone snuck up to one of Lily's cherished teapots and fatally spiked Ed's bespoke brew, but who? Was it Ed's long-estranged sister-in-law? Or perhaps the family's feuds have been steeping for longer than anyone realizes? It's up to Lily, Rose, and their friends to get to the bottom of the poisoned pot and bag the real culprit behind the kettle murder plot.

©2021 Vicki Delany (P)2021 Tantor

Skip the Audible

I always enjoy tea themed mysteries but I struggled to get through the Audible for the book. For me, the narrator wasn't a good fit. Between the constant, "I said, she said, and he said," the vocal pitch of the narractor, and the accent used for the characters, which sounded unnatural, I was so distracted that it has taken me months to finish. I will purchase the author's next book in the series but in paper or Kindle format only.

Fun story, terrible narrator

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was unhappy to see they changed narrators. The story in this 2nd book is good but the narrator really distracts from the story and ruins it a bit. She seems to forget which accent she is going for with some characters. Her voice for Rose is hands down the worst offender. Aside from accents there are weird there are strange pauses as well that really take away from the experience. I hope the next book in the series goes to a different narrator. The first was great but if she's not available I'd still prefer someone else.

Good story but poor narration threatened to ruin it

The narrator was awful. Why would the company hire someone who was completely unable to speak with an English accent for a book that featured an English woman as one of the main characters? Actually the accent used for Rose was so bizarre it was unidentifiable as belonging to any region or culture.
If Vicki Delany continues with series, a different narrator is a must. The first book’s narrator was excellent and I looked forward to the next book…until I heard the current narrator. It would have been an enjoyable “listen” if the first narrator had also read the second book.

Atrocious Narrator

I really liked the first book in the series and the narrator was great. Unfortunately, the narrator for the 2nd book was different and so bad I can’t even finish the book. There are so many great narrators out there so I have no idea what happened.

Terrible narration

I was hoping a new narrator would help the second book in this series but this narrator was even worse than the first. The accents were terrible and sounded like the characters were grunting. Also, if you are going to narrate a book about a tearoom you should be able to pronounce the necessary names of items found in tea rooms. There is no such thing as a “macarown” - there are macaroons and macarons which are very different sweets. The narration was so bad it spoiled the enjoyment of the story.

Love this series!

I’m not a fan of the new narrator. I liked the original narrator but not this one. The story was engaging!

Poor narrator

I should have realized that the narrator was not the same as the one who read the first book. This narrator kept mixing up the accent of Rose, who was English, but the narrator added in a Scottish accent. I only made it to the second chapter before giving up.

Great story, Not so good narration.

The story did not disappoint. I loved the plot line, the setting, the characters.
But the voices were almost irritating.
I felt Lily and Bernie sounded so whiny. Bernie especially sounded like a little kid perpetually whining.
Rose kept changing her accent. The voices of Redman and Williams were over dramatized. The rest of the characters were just annoying.
Sorry but I felt it was a big difference between the first book and this one.

Like nails on a chalkboard

Terrible narration. Don’t do accents if you can’t. The characters with “accents” sounded constipated. I can’t even finish the story. I was just going to skip this one in the series but the next has the same narrator so this series is a bust.

Great story…

But I’d prefer a different narrator. Sometimes a narrator just Isn’t right for a book. But the story itself is so much fun! I figured it out but not until close to the end.