Little Shop of Homicide

A Devereaux’s Dime Store Mystery, Book 1

By: Denise Swanson

Narrated by: Maia Guest

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Dev Sinclair is the happy new owner of the old-fashioned shop in her small Missouri town. But if she doesn't focus on finding the killer of her ex's fiance, this five-and-dime owner may find herself serving 25 to life.

©2012 Denise Swanson Stybr (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Average Mystery

This was a good mystery, but nothing particularly unique. There weren't many twists and the narration was average. I had a hard time believing the portrayal of Jake's voice. Plus, there was a little too much focus on the romance angle for my tastes. I don't think this was enough to entice me to read any more in this series.

Kinda Cute

This an OK read. Kinda cute, kinda cozy. I'm sure I would not have finished this in print. It's really a 2.5 star but I'm sweet & always round up. I'll try something else of hers someday. Maybe even another Devereaux Dime Store Mystery!

Story good but......

The story was pretty good but the narrator made Jake and Poppy sound like B movie gangsters. It was difficult thinking of Poppy as a young woman and not an older woman whose voice had been ruined by cigarettes and drinking.

Fun story

This has a good story line but the narrator needs to work on her male voices.

I love this author<3 <3 <3

I've listened to this book twice to make sure that I was going to be able to give a good review. I don't normally write reviews but I really wanted to write one for this book. I feel it started pretty good. Deveraux Sinclair comes home to take care of her grandmother so she buys local store to ensure that she'll be close to home. Dev (that's her nickname) makes these amazing baskets (naughty and nice) that gets her sucked into a murder. There's a detective Woods who has her pegged for the murder so she and her friends set out to prove that she's innocent.

I Love LOVE the Scumble River Series and have listened to all 19 books like 3 times each and I have all the Return to Scumble River (all 3 of them) books. I really wanted this book. series, to be as good as those were and I really don't think they are. There was more mystery in the Scumble River books than in this one. I do have all 6 books in this series and will leave a separate review for each.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because it wasn't as good as I was hoping.

Narration is frustrating

The story is good, but the narration is frustrating. The voices are very unrealistic and I almost turned it off because of this. But the story prevailed.

Good story not so good narration

The story is engaging but the narrator was not authentic and droned on. The accents were poor.

What a disappointment!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm not really sure who would like this book. It was about 1/3 mystery and 2/3 sappy, cliched, silly romance. It would be an insult to fans of romances to suggest they would like it.

Has Little Shop of Homicide turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I'm a long-time mystery fan, and it would take more than one book to turn me off to the genre. However, I won't read any more books in this series.

What aspect of Maia Guest’s performance would you have changed?

There was something funny about the way Jake was voiced -- what I suppose was intended to be kind of a sexy whisper.

What character would you cut from Little Shop of Homicide?

Jake (though Devereaux would have had to have some other way of getting access to information about the police investigation).

Any additional comments?

I have enjoyed Swanson's Scrumble River series from the beginning and was looking forward to this one. It's particularly disappointing that this book isn't better because there were some good elements. I actually did like Devereaux quite a bit, at least when she wasn't mooning over Jake. The mystery itself was pretty good, and some of the other characters were entertaining. I feel like it could have been the beginning of another very good series.

Intrigued...in paperback

What would have made Little Shop of Homicide better?

A different narrator! Geez it was so painful to hear her interpretation of the characters voices! I did enjoy the book, the author was thoughtful and it was definitely not predictable. I did enjoy that there were unanswered questions that keep you wanting to pick up the next in her series.

What did you like best about this story?

Birdy! What a great character!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

How doesn't she, I just didn't understand Poppy & Jakes voices?! Did Poppy have a bad case of laryngitis?! And Jake was so quiet that half the time I was at full volume. I just don't understand how the producer was listening to this and didn't call for a redo!!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Little Shop of Homicide?

I enjoyed the full written content.

Any additional comments?

Please choose a different narrator or have her fix those characters voices. I wont be picking up the next book in the series due to narrator.

awful

What disappointed you about Little Shop of Homicide?

The story line was just awful, i could not finish the 2'nd chapter. It kept getting worse.

Has Little Shop of Homicide turned you off from other books in this genre?

NO

Did Maia Guest do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

NO