The Monet Murders

The Art of Murder, Book 2

De: Josh Lanyon

Narrado por: Kale Williams

Jason West and Sam Kennedy are back!

All those late night conversations when Sam had maybe a drink too many or Jason was half falling asleep. All those playful, provocative comments about what they'd do when they finally met up again.

Well, here they were.

The last thing Jason West, an ambitious young FBI Special Agent with the Art Crimes Team, wants - or needs - is his uncertain and unacknowledged romantic relationship with irascible legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy.

And it's starting to feel like Sam is not thrilled with the idea either.

But personal feelings must be put aside when Sam requests Jason's help to catch a deranged killer targeting wealthy, upscale art collectors. A killer whose calling card is a series of grotesque paintings depicting the murders.

©2017 Josh Lanyon (P)2017 Josh Lanyon

Great romance. Inriguing tale.

Loved it. The birthday party was my favorite moment. Kale has the perfect voice for these stories.

Good addition to this series

There were only two things that stopped this from being a 5 Star read for me. For the majority of the book, they were not together and we saw so little of Sam. The other was Jason hooking up with someone on page. Yes they were not a couple so technically it wasn’t cheating but, he was in love with Sam. The mystery was really good and I loved the investigation. Can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Superb

Fantastic, Brilliant, Entertaining. Gripping, Thrilling, Romantic, Absorbing. Engaging. Mysterious comes to mind when describing The Monet Murders.

Faultless comes to mind when describing Kale Williams narration.

Began listening to this addicting series through Hoopla . They have book 1 , 3 and 4 available to borrow. It's more than likely I will end up buying this series - hopefully they are included in their 2 for 1 deal - though Audible to have it on my personal Library.

Great Book

Josh Lanyon is in fine form. It’s a good mystery and he wrote with the confidence to leave loose ends. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

enjoyed it

Did the story keep me engaged: yes
Were there any parts I found annoying: Jason's (regular) inner 'why did Sam dump me' for the first half of the book.
Did I feel an emotional connection to the characters: I did by about the three quarter mark - but it took a while to get there.
Would I listen to it again: I wouldn't not listen to it again, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Good mystery with a good pace. I liked it more than book 1, but i'm still on the fence about the two main characters. I liked Jason better in this book than the first and Sam is showing some redeeming qualities (he feels slightly 'softer' in this one), so they are both growing on me.

Kale Williams does a great job of bringing characters to life.

Josh Lanyon is the master at dragging out a relationship - now that the relationship is moving forward i'm more interested in giving the rest of the series a listen.

Loved it, loved it; I love me some Lanyon

I binge listened to this book in less than a day. It's dryly funny, suspenseful, and sometimes sexy. It was very Josh Lanyon.

This book has more interpersonal stuff going on with Jason, mostly with his very complicated relationship with very complicated Sam, and a little with his family. One gets to know Jason a little more each book, as well as Sam, (although Sam is a lot harder to get to know). The mystery almost takes a back seat to Jason & Sam's struggles, from this book onward in the series, really. This is not to say that there's not loads of mystery, danger and suspense, (and rather gruesome murder), but since Jason and Sam have already met & become involved, that aspect of the first book is taken care of, and their relationship is there from page (or minute) one. Jason also shows that his trait of making rather questionable decisions is kind of his thing - particularly with regard to his personal safety. (He's similar to Elliot from the All's Fair series in that respect.)

Unlike the first book's whodunit, I was not able to solve the mystery right off the bat, (and well before Jason). Each book has a way of throwing out multiple plausible and possible suspects, but I did not have the confidence in my detective skills as much with this book as the previous one. That's probably a good thing, even if I missed gloating about figuring it out before the heroes.

The audio continued to be stellar. Kale Williams is not praised enough.

LOVED!

The Mermaid Murders was my favorite book of 2016 and I was so happy to read this new chapter in Jason and Sam's story.

I really identified with Jason's struggle to understand what was going on with Sam. His hurt and bewilderment were painful to read, but Sam eventually came through and the ending was perfect! The mystery was well done and had me guessing until the end.

This was definitely a 5 star book and I loved the audio version too!

I Like!

It's been eight months since we said goodbye to Jason and Sam and their tentative beginning of something more. Life and cases has kept them in different parts of the country. That all changes when a German national ends up murdered and Sam calls in Jason for help as a painting resembling Monets works has been found on the scene.

In the last book, I never really warmed to Sam, but I did have some hope by the end of it that he had and would continue to change going forward. Lo and behold, it's now 8 months later and he's back to square one. I wasn't happy. Relationship-wise I feel like we just started over, like the first book never happened. I was back to disliking Sam. Feeling Jason was back to being a bit of doormat who constantly being kicked around by Sam and that's not a feeling I particularly enjoy. While we got to know Sam a bit more and understand his reasons for pulling back from Jason, I still don't feel like that was enough. The constant back and forth with Jason is getting a bit tedious and exhausting, almost like watching a tennis match.

I'm deliberately not talking much of the mystery as I don't want to give anything away - I mean, what fun is a mystery if you already have all the answers? I will say that as always Lanyon delivers a great mystery plot with lots of twists and turns – just as it should be.

I feel like Kale Williams struggled a bit with this book. The voices he had for Sam and Jason were at times exactly the same so the read wasn't as effortless as it could've been or was with the first book. I still very much enjoy listening to his voice, and the narration of this book, I just wish he differentiated more between the different characters and keep them differentiated throughout.

The Monet Murders should be read for the mystery, not the romance. The mystery will keep you on your toes and guessing who the culprit is right up until the explosive end. While I didn't enjoy aspects of the book, the mystery alone made this a very enjoyable read, which is why I'm jumping straight into the next book in the series.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes

EXCITING!

The first book in the series was very, very good. This one will leave you breathless. I'm enjoying this every bit as much as I enjoyed the Adrien English series.

Enjoyable listen

Where does The Monet Murders rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks. This was enjoyable, but more of a 5/10 than my all time favorite

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I like Sam and his closed down, get the job done persona. I liked finding out why he is that way. I didn't like that there were so many cases intertwined that it was hard to work out who was who and which case they were connected to. I guess it would be easier to figure out if reading, but having names thrown out got confusing.

What does Kale Williams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Kale Williams has a good steady narration pace. He didn't show if he had a great range of accents/voices, but I have no complaints about this narration

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. I listened to it as my bedtime story over several nights.

Any additional comments?

Another good, steady, formulaic Josh Lanyon book. Good narration. The fans will lap it up.