A Story to Kill

Cat Latimer Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Lynn Cahoon

Narrated by: C. S. E. Cooney

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Former English professor Cat Latimer is back in Colorado, hosting writers' retreats in the big blue Victorian she's inherited, much to her surprise, from none other than her carousing ex-husband. Now it's an authors' getaway, but Cat won't let anyone get away with murder.

The bed-and-breakfast is open for business, and best-selling author Tom Cook is among its first guests. Cat doesn't know why he came all the way from New York, but she's glad to have him among the quirkier - and far less famous - attendees.

Cat's high school sweetheart, Seth, who's fixing up the weathered home, brings on mixed emotions for Cat, some of them a little overpowering. But it's her uncle, the local police chief, whom she'll call for help when there's a surprise ending for Tom Cook in his cozy guest room. Will a killer have the last word on the new life Cat has barely begun?

©2016 Lynn Cahoon (P)2016 Tantor

Great beginning

Great new series! The characters and the setting are perfect! There is an ongoing mystery that will be developed, and I look forward to the next one! Romance, mystery, and excitement!!!

An interesting start

I really enjoy the Tourist Trap mysteries by this same author, so if you're new to Lynn Cahoon, you might want to start there.

A Story to Kill is an interesting start to a new series, with a lot of great mystery elements. The main character, Cat, is renovating an enormous old house, complete with its own secrets and surprises) to turn it into a bed and breakfast style writer's retreat. The small-town atmosphere keeps the character connections tight: Cat's ex-husband left her the house. Cat's old flame is doing the renovation. The police chief is a relative of Cat's, easing the way for her investigations. But despite some good bones, the plot jumps around a lot and the relationships, particularly the one with Cat's old flame, seem forced. I'm hoping this series catches its stride in the next book. I have confidence in the author, and I'm looking forward to what comes next.

I think I would've enjoyed it more in written form

I liked the story more than the coffee and bookstore series she's written. I could identify with the characters more readily. however, the narrator was just vested than a robotic voice. I hope the series continues, but with someone different reading it. I could've done it and I'm not a narrator.

3 and a half stars

The plot was okay and the characters were believable. However, the story dragged in some areas and there was too much focus on the relationship between Cat and Tom. Overall it was just okay. I look forward to the next book.

A Complex and Fascinating Mystery

In A Story to Kill by Lynn Cahoon, writer and former English professor Cat Latimer learns that the man she divorced three years earlier after walking in on him with one of his female students has suddenly died. Then Cat gets astonished to learn that Michael left the house that they had bought together upon getting married to her. So she moves back to Colorado from California, where she went after leaving Michael, and turns the large Victorian house into a retreat place for fellow writers. Her plan is to offer writers one week each month a chance to get away from the reality of their lives in order to get serious writing done, while her best friend Shauna does the actual running of the home and cooking. The first week of the retreat arrives, and Cat has a full house of two elderly sisters working on romance books, a man working on "fiction," and a graduate student working on her thesis. But her big coup is to get a famous, best-selling author, Tom Cook, who helps to raise the status of the retreat. Cat learns that Tom once attended the local college, where Cat got her degrees and later taught alongside her ex-husband. He helps to make the writers group lively and successful the first full day, but that night, Cat goes to check on him, only to find him lying dead in a pool of blood.

Cat's Uncle Pete, chief of police of their college town, comes to investigate, but it takes a while before he and the department get any clues. In the meantime, Cat has to deal with the writers who have paid plenty to spend a week focusing on their writing. What's more, the house needs significant remodeling to turn ot into a retreat center, and the only handyman in town is Seth, Cat's high school boyfriend, who clearly still holds a flame for Cat. And will they be able to attract new writers to their retreat after the murder of one of their guests?

At first, I thought this book started out a little slow, but it took only a couple chapters before I became deeply invested in both the mystery and the lives of the characters. The mystery plot came across as well developed, with plenty of creative twists and turns that happened at just the right moment. The book contained several points of curiosity, adding to the depth of the book and its strength.

The characters are very well developed, with each having a distinct personality and standing out clearly from the others. We find ourselves rooting for Cat and for Seth to help her open her heart to love again.

I did find what seems to be an inconsistency because Cat dated Seth in high school and referred to herself and Seth as too young to visit the bar when they were dating. Yet she didn't begin dating Michael until grad school, very shortly after a fight with Seth. So i can't figure out the time line for their time together.

C.S.E. Cooney narrates the audiobook. I enjoyed listening to the book, but I can't say that the performance stood out as very notable to me.

In all, however, I had a good time listening to to A Story to Kill. I found the plot appealing, with a unique combination of details that really excite and keep up guessing. It makes us invested in the characters and does a fabulous job. I give the book five stars.

Cliffhanger ending

The ending of this book left me wanting more, and finished on a bit of a cliffhanger. One of the overarching stories continues into the following books in the series, so just a heads up.

Overall I liked the mustery & the premise of this story. Cat can be grumpy & temperamental a lot of the time, and I’m still deciding if I’m fond of her or not.. but the supporting cast was very enjoyable & the narration is wonderfully done!

Narrator ruined this book

I had a difficult time engaging in the storyline because the narrator was so completely annoying!! The breathy voice of Shawna and the constant over - pronunciation throughout the book seriously drove me up the wall. Maybe I'll read the next one, instead of listening.

More Romance than Mystery, more YA than Cozy...

More Irritating than Entertaining.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. The premise is great, the main character is a ditz. She goes on and on (in her head) about wanting to shag the guy, then when he's there, she plays hard to get. Nauseating! If I didn't have to hear so many of the main character's "thoughts", I might have liked her more.
Then ***Spoiler ALERT***, you got three women, two are tied "loosely", but yet the hunky man has to come in and save the day. Nauseating! (You'll be thinking the same thing when you read/hear it.) And it's not much of a spoiler alert, because you'll figure it out when you're there, and I bet you'll be rolling your eyes.
Then, to add insult to injury, you're left with another dangling mystery. It's enticing you to the second book, but you don't know if you can stand to hear anymore of the ditzy main character's thoughts. It would be a great book if you replaced her with a smart woman, because all the other characters are great! (sigh)

Intriguing story

I liked the story a lot. The near raider has an irritating habit of overenunciating that makes some of the book feel stilted.

Story ok, but narration is difficult to listen to.

The narration is stilted, mechanical, and monotonous, with repetitive patterns of delivery that are not called for in the text. The narration didn't distinguish dialogue and characters from each other. There was no effective use of timing, emphasis, inflection, and other skills of the speech arts. I would purchase the other books in the series, but can't bear to listen to the narrator again. I guess I'll purchase and read the others.