Eat, Drink, and Be Wary

The Sleuth Sisters Mysteries, Book 5

By: Maggie Pill

Narrated by: Anne Jacques, Laura Bednarski, Judy Blue

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

What do a kayak, a wine barrel, and a tractor have in common? They're all weapons in the hands of three determined women!

When the FBI asks the Sleuth Sisters to attend a retreat for "Love-Able Ladies", Barb opts out, unwilling to spend a weekend celebrating the joys of being some man's "little wife". Retta is eager to go since the venue is a swanky vineyard/inn on the Leelanau Peninsula, north of Traverse City, Michigan. Never a fan of large groups of strangers, Faye would rather stay home, but since Retta needs a "wing-woman", she doesn't get a choice.

Their assignment is to assess the possibility a retreat attendee might cooperate in an FBI investigation. Dina Engel is launching a line of high-fashion clothing, and the feds hope that means she's separating herself from her drug king-pin father. The sisters will try to get to know Dina, hint the Bureau is interested in a meeting, and provide her with a safe way to contact them.

Though the setting is lovely and the inn is all that Retta imagined, things quickly go bad. Murder, kidnapping, and a mysterious plot involving Dina's fashion show plunge Faye and Retta into danger. The sisters are separated from each other and threatened with death if they don't cooperate. Retta finds it hard being isolated and alone. Faye has to decide which people around her are enemies and which are innocent retreat attendees. Sensing trouble, Barb shows up, but she soon faces a choice between being shot and drowning in Grand Traverse Bay.

It doesn't seem possible that all three sisters can survive the dream-weekend-turned-nightmare. Still, this is the fifth Sleuth Sisters adventure, and listeners know these women don't give up easily. Sit back, have a glass of wine, and learn a little more about sister power!

©2017 Peggy Herring (P)2017 Peggy Herring

Loved the story

The story was well written and full of excitement and twists, but the narrators need more practice. The inflection and performance was jerky and distracting.

Disappointment

I've enjoyed this series and as a result have tolerated the poor performance of the woman who reads for Faye but this reading was especially poor. It's as if she hadn't prepared and was reading the story for the first time and had no opportunity for redos. She paused in the middle of sentences frequently and there was little if any emotion in her voice. Since a large part of this story is related by Faye it made it especially noticeable. Where is the editor/director in this? The poor performance was way too distracting and I won't be listening to any more of this series if she is one of of the readers.
The story was much too unbelievable. I couldn't suspend my disbelief. There were too many situations that were obviously explained away with poor excuses just to further the plot, they weren't realistic enough. This series is falling apart and I will be waiting for reviews when the next installment comes out before I buy it.

All five books in this series...

...have good stories, good mysteries, funny characters, etc.

However, all three narrators have issues, but the one who portrays Faye is the WORST. The one who portrays Barbara and the one who portrays Retta may just have technical issues, but they all don't finish their sentences before pausing or taking a breath or stumbling on words, CONSTANTLY. Idk if they just need more practice, if they are asthmatic, if they can't read well, or maybe they lose their place when reading??? Idk what exactly the problem is, but with Barbara's and Retta's characters that can all be sort of overlooked, but Faye's character, OMGsh I wanted to yell "Stop! What is wrong with you?!" soooo many times!! GRRRRR!!

I enjoyed all of the stories and think this is a good author and that is the only reason I kept listening.

But I won't listen to anything else by these three narrators. By the time I got to the 5th book, I was super annoyed by all the mistakes in the narration. It's really a shame b/c this is such a good series.

GREAT series

Have finished book 5. Love the 3 voices for the Audible version. Really sets off the series.

Another empowering book for women

In Eat, Drink, and Be Wary by Maggie Pill, the Smart Detective Agency gets recruited by the FBI to help catch a large-scale drug dealer. The dealer's daughter, Dina Engel, is going to hold her first fashion show at a convention of the Love-Able Ladies, a group of women dedicated to encouraging women to be feminine instead of feminist. Needless to say, Barb, the oldest of the three sisters, a highly independent retired assistant district attorney, can't stand the thought of going near such a group, but Retta, the youngest sister, insists on going, dragging along middle sister, Faye, with her. Arriving at the posh resort, the sisters attend the first session and then go outside to meet their FBI contact, only to find him murdered. Before they can call the police, they get stopped by a pair of criminals, who kidnap them, taking the ladies to their room. The man in charge, using the alias Ted, decides to send Faye to the convention and keep Retta in the hotel room as a hostage of "Bill," who, yes, selected their fake names from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Bill clearly has some mental issues, and Retta soon gets to work gaining his sympathy.

Faye works to figure out what nefarious action led to the murder of the FBI agent and what crime is in the works to make Ted keep them alive at the moment, since he doesn't want to make waves before Sunday's fashion show. So Faye gets herself involved in helping with the show. It doesn't take long before Barb gets concerned over the fact that she hasn't heard from either sister, including Retta, who is tied to her phone. So she travels to the convention in search of the truth.

This book has some really creative points to it. I still enjoy the creative angle of having each sister narrate the different chapters. I love the way we see the same scenarios through the eyes of different sisters, giving creative angles to each one's recounting. I especially appreciated the way each of the three sisters recounts the only time she ever saw her mother cry, with each sister telling a different situation that gives new insight into their mother. The convention provides a terrific opportunity to highlight the differences and similarities of the three sisters, against the background of women who would never have approved of the Smart Detective Agency.

The book continues the message of all Sleuth Sisters books in speaking out for women's empowerment and the value of working together. Further, the backdrop of the Love-Able Ladies convention allows a discussion of how women should be allowed to do whatever they want, even if what they want is to be feminine stay-at-home mothers.

I really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit to missing some of the other characters, such as police chief Rory, FBI agent Lars, and assistant Gabe with his new wife Mindy. These characters really help to bring out the best in the sisters, something I would have liked to see more of in this book.

As before, the book contains three narrators, with Laura Bednarski performing the part of Faye, Judy Blue performing the part of Retta, and Anne Jacques performing the part of Barb. These three women do an excellent job of portraying the trio of sisters, even to the extent of imitating each other's voice when her character quotes one of her sisters. I love audiobooks, but this is one book in particular that should be listened to instead of read, given the uniqueness and fun of the audio edition.

I have loved the whole Sleuth Sisters series, including this one, but I do have to admit that it is my least favorite book in the series. It contains less depth than the previous books and misses out by not showing loved other characters in the series. Yet even the worst Sleuth Sisters book is a great listen. I give it four stars.

Sleuth sisters number five awesome!

I love all of the sleuth sisters books! Number five has some wonderful humor in it! I highly recommend these books for anyone who is just looking for a good mystery with some lighthearted humor and some really wonderful characters! My favorite is Faye! These mysteries are by no means life! Each one has held my attention and excited me to figure out who did it as well as enjoying three wonderful strong women with very different personalities!

Enjoyable series about women detectives over 50

I have really enjoyed this series of books. The three sisters, who are the detectives, are very well written and are enjoyable though very different. The stories are very different and each one is a good listen. This particular book in the series is very good and shows each sisters strengths and weaknesses.

Disappointing Production

I've listened to all 5 books and have enjoyed the stories. It took me a while to get to the point where Barb didn't really annoy me...truth be told she still does, but it didn't stop me from listening to all the books.

However, this 5th book, the production is weak. It sounds as if it was poorly spliced together, you can hear the narrators breathing during what I consider long pauses where there was no need for a pause. I feel like this was just thrown together.

Poor producing/production.

Characters pathetic turn

This is the 5th Sleuth Sisters novel in the series and the 5th I have read. It was truly disappointing. The book spends so much time in the characters heads whining about their roles as women that the story line was lost. I like to read these books to get away from the issues of every day life but this book drags the reader through women's issues that are continually raised like sub-plots. It's done in such a heavy-handed manner that it is frustrating and dull. My advice is skip this one and hope the next is better.