Death by Pumpkin Spice

Bookstore Cafe Mystery, Book 3

By: Alex Erickson

Narrated by: Melissa Moran

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

As if a run-in with an old flame and a failed marriage proposal weren't enough to horrify Krissy for one night, a woman is found strangled to death in a room filled with ominous jack-o'-lanterns. All signs suggest a crime of passion - but when the hostess's jewelry disappears, malevolent intentions seem way more likely.

With the estate on lockdown and a killer roaming the halls, Krissy must help Officer Paul Dalton investigate each nook, cranny, and guest for answers - while also confronting a few demons of her own. Someone has lots of skeletons in the closet, and Krissy better tread lightly to expose them.

©2016 Eric S. Moore (P)2017 Tantor

my favorite so far

someone please murder the main character. she is annoying. this murder was at least interesting. but im done with this series

Fun story well narrated.

I really enjoyed this book. Kept my interest the entire way through. I like the narrative too. Very easy to listen to.

Getting better!

I tend to listen to a whole series of books in order as soon as I find them. The first book in this series, Death by Coffee, was included in Audible Plus so I tried it. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. Reviews were, in my opinion, needlessly harsh. It felt like an early effort and was likely to get better. I am glad I stuck with it. I do still feel that the main character is a little more nosey, and the police a little more (ridiculously) lax but the books are getting better! I do hope that she stops her tendency to accuse every suspect until she hits on the killer. It feels a bit like the broken clock being right twice per day....currently listening to book 4!

Love this series

I love the characters in these books! This is the 2nd book of this series I've read and I love it! I'm reading them out of order so far, but I'm going to start with #1 and read the unread ones next.

Story was ok; main character a bit dull

Couldn’t really get into this. A bit slow, predictable and an uninteresting main character. Found it very hard to believe that three guys were pining after her. Found the narrator’s performance dull as well. And her pronunciation of the word important was like nails on a chalk board. It’s not imporedent!

Could be a favorite…

I started this series w/ high hopes, but I find the main character to be increasingly irrational. She whines, begs, and ignores the people in her life who actually care about her.

I gave it an hour and gave up

I listened for an hour and in that time the “heroine” got asked on a date and picked out an outfit. The writing seemed…young…like some students I’ve worked with, and the dialogue was stilted and awkward. The reader had a simplistic, staccato rhythm of her own that emphasized the dialogue issues in particular. Maybe it got better? But I couldn’t finish.

Not good

Narrator was very robotic throughout the internal dialogue. Also, the way the internal dialogue was written was hard to listen to, so I skipped through a lot of it. I won’t be listening to any more of this series or author, I couldn’t even finish the Christmas Cocoa Murder.

Boring

Just couldn’t get into it. Too boring, dated and cliche. Some might like it for light reading but I’m going spend six hours listening to a book. I want to enjoy it and look forward to going back to it every chance I get.

Has potential, but this one falls flat.

The story starts with promise as a cozy mystery, but drags on for far too long with unlikable characters. It seemed as if the author couldn’t quite decide what age to make this story appeal to, as the protagonist Kristy acts as though she’s an insecure teenager at some times and a confident mature thirty at others, which makes the tone quite confusing and the character annoying. The mystery itself simply overstayed it’s welcome to me with too many red herrings.

I think this author shows potential in this novel to write good stories. I think he needs to decide on an audience and definitely learn how to write good female protagonists as this one relies far too much on gaining male attention and approval. I could see a future in which this author writes great, cozy mysteries once these issues are solved.