No Tears for Darcy

By: Vicki Reese

Narrated by: Brock Hatton

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Letting love pass them by would be a crime.

Former forensic accountant Cameron has lost nearly everyone he’s ever loved, and now his vintage clothing shop has been broken into and trashed. When town Police Chief Will Carson asks an out-of-town cop friend of his for help, Cam takes one look at the dark-haired, blue-eyed detective and knows he’s in real trouble - and it has nothing to do with vandalism or murder.

Pete Minchelli is on leave from his job in Philadelphia due to a gunshot wound, but he figures he can help an academy buddy with some light police work. Plus, he’ll have a chance to experience small-town life. He’s tired of the big city and all its corruption. But he quickly discovers that not all the bad stuff happens in cities. What he doesn’t expect to find is death, treachery - or love.

©2018 Vicki Reese (P)2018 Dreamspinner Press

No Tears for Darcy

3.5 Stars

I really thought the storyline was enjoyable for this book. It was interesting, had plenty of twists and turns and kept you guessing. But the characters... I seriously disliked pretty much every single character in this book.

Cameron, one of the main characters, was the most clueless, moronic person ever. He literally had zero clue what was going on around him at any point in time. A forensic accountant with some sort of police division, he had no self-awareness or self-preservation, and was dating Jim, who was, for all accounts, one of the “bad guys”.

Jim... Jim was horrible all around and obviously karma caught up with him ’cause he was dead before this book even started. Lol. He was a horrible person to Cameron when they were dating and we heard all kinds of stuff come to light about their relationship and the sordid details of what happened during that time. We also learned how far down the rabbit hole Jim’s deceptions and lies went.

Darcy.... who the F was Darcy? This chick was totally insane. She was all over the place. All up in Cameron’s business and super sketchy in everything she did. She lied, stole and was just a bad human being all around and it sounds really, really bad but she really kinda got what was coming to her.

Pete was one of the other main characters. There was not really a whole lot to him. There was not a huge connection made between Cameron and him. There wasn’t a whole lot of character development between the two men and it ended up being a really slow burn with minimal physical actions going on.

Steve... Steve was a freaking weirdo. He just showed up all over the place. His character wasn’t really defined or explained well. He was there and yet he wasn’t. He was basically the handyman for the whole town, saw and heard everything but seemed to stay in the shadows.

Will... Now, there was a character who totally took you by surprise. The town cop, he seemed to have his hands in everything and was all-seeing/knowing about everything that went on in his town.

The book was structured well. The storyline was paced out well. It was a big question of who-done-it mystery. And with all my character dislike I actually still didn’t see the ending coming and who was behind it all. A crazy story that was written well.


Audio - I think that for a first narration outing Brock Hatton did a decent job. I wasn’t super impressed but at the same time it wasn’t horrible. At the beginning there were a few odd accents he vocalized for some of the characters that seemed to dissipate over time. The characters did have pretty separate voicing which I appreciated and which helped differentiate them in the story. He put in a good effort and I think over time, once he gets a few more Audiobooks under his belt he has a chance at becoming a great narrator. I am interested to see what he comes out with in the future.

A riveted suspense with so many twists

No Tears for Darcy is a riveting suspense/ thriller that keeps you turning the page.
I immediately fell in love with Cameron and wanted to hug him. He lost his father to a hit and run, then his mother got sick and passed away. If that’s not a lot to endure, he found out his boyfriend was possibly cheating and then died on the day they were holding his mother’s Memorial.

Pete is a cop from the city that owns silent partnership in a new business in town with his brother. He is on leave from being shot in the leg and came home to recuperate. He is with his friend from the academy Will, who is the chief of police in town when they were called out to investigate a break-in at Cameron’s shop.

There are quite a few twists in the story but I won’t call this a mystery. I guessed the perpetrator pretty quick but not all of his involvement. Still, I couldn’t put it down. The characters are well rounded. The story intriguing. And the twisted nursery rhymes chilling. The sex is all off the page but still sexy. I highly recommend this book. It’s on my favorite list.

I loved this book so much it was on my reread list ( not many get that far so I was thrilled to listen and not disappointed. !

Not for me.

No Tears for Darcy is a mystery told from multiple third-person points of view including Cameron, Pete, and the killer. There are clues as to who the killer is pretty early on, but enough red herrings that leave the reader doubting if they're right or not. There's some romance, but the mystery and suspense are more paramount here.

I'm afraid the audio didn't work for me. There is quite a bit of ambient booth noise throughout, which through my headphones sounded even worse and never truly let me settle in to enjoy the story. Adding Brock Hatton's staccato speech pattern and a pace that never seemed to gain a good flow...it all made this a less than pleasant listening experience. 

While I liked Hatton's voice, and that he differentiates between characters with slightly different voices and accents, it couldn't make up for the things that were annoying me while listening.

This appears to be Hatton's first audiobook, so perhaps a better microphone, some sound proofing, and some more experience will hopefully help him work out these kinks in his next effort.

Insanely predictable.

While predictable, the story is not bad, neither is the narration, but the recording is, there’s a constant white noice like on old recordings, before the digital age, really annoying.
I liked the three siblings a lot, they were great together, but I didn’t really care about anyone else.
The story has three POVs, the two MCs and the unnamed bad person, once you hear that one though, you know who it is, not even the attempt of a red herring at the end will leave you with any doubts.