Pancakes and Corpses

By: Agatha Frost

Narrated by: Kelly-Anne Smith

Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Soon to be divorced Julia South never expected to be caught up in solving a murder, until she discovered the body of her cafe's most awkward customer. With a new smug Detective Inspector in town who underestimates her every move, Julia makes it her mission to discover the real murderer, before her village friends are dragged into the frame, and more bodies are discovered. Book one in the Peridale Cafe Mystery series! A light, cozy mystery with a cat loving and cafe-owning female amateur sleuth, in a small village setting with quirky characters. No cliffhanger, swearing, gore, or graphic scenes!

©2017 Ashley Mcloughlin (P)2017 Ashley Mcloughlin

Narrator Should be Reading to Kindergarten Classes

Would you try another book from Agatha Frost and/or Kelly-Anne Smith?

I might try another book from Agatha Frost, but NEVER anything narrated by Kelley-Anne Smith.

What could Agatha Frost have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make sure anyone else was hired to read it.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She read too quickly. She was just reading the words; there was no evidence that she understood what she was saying. She could not do voices. This was just a very basic reading that any elementary librarian could have done. If I'm paying to have a book performed, the narrator needs to bring more than just pronouncing the words. Her voice was nice enough sounding in the sample, but it's very redundant over time.

Any additional comments?

This was a shame because the sample I read to myself on Amazon was very engaging. The narrator created a distance between the story and audience--the exact opposite of her job.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

WOW.. narrator is beyond bad

Truthfully, I don't know if the book is good or not. I got to the second chapter and just couldn't listen any longer.
The narrator was so incredibly bad, she didn't stop for periods nor commas. She read the book straight without any inflection. I'm not kidding when I say the Kindle auto-reader has more emotion in it's robotic voice, I've listened to a few books that way and enjoyed them, I can take a bad narration but this... this was beyond awful. Don't waste a credit or your money!! Read it or have your Kindle read it to you.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good Story but...

Narrator needs to work on her male voices. Her detective Barker sounded like a cross between Lurch and a dim witted gangster. It almost made me stop listening on several occasions. But cute cozy story.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

very interesting!

I bought this book on a whim. it was recommended to me. I very much enjoyed this book! finished it in 2 days.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Who done it?

This was the first time i listened to this author. The story line was good. This book had a lot of little twist and turns, And secrets, I look forward t more in this series

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Decent story suffered from poor recording choices

This recording suffered from dreadful editing, especially in the first few chapters. Also, while I like Kelly-Anne Smith's voice, she was not the right reader for this book. Although it was hard to tell through the other issues, the story was OK, and the kind I would usually like, so I might still give the next book in the series a try.

Okay story, robotic narration

It was a pretty good story. It had all the right pieces parts to make up a good cozy mystery. The killer was not a surprise, but I still enjoyed it. I wish the characters were a little more 3-dimensional, though. I might read another Agatha Frost mystery if I run out of my usual authors and need a fix.

The narration, however, was awful. I purchased the book in both Kindle and Audible because it was cheaper that way. The audio turned out to be a waste of money. I started to listen to the audio version several times and just could not get past the first couple of paragraphs. The narrator sounded like a robot. It sounded like Siri was reading to me. No inflexion, no personality. Just flat, monotone reading. I am glad I had the Kindle or I would have never gotten through this book.

nice cozy. narrator needs improvement.

the story is a nice cozy. the narrator can improve. more intonation is needed, reading too flat. Barker's male voice is horrible. otherwise ok.

Cozy mystery cafe

This book was good! I read it straight thru, no breaks. Charming murder mystery with a bit of romance.

Enjoyable listen, kept my interest!

I just have one question, how does one make a living just selling pancakes and scones along with interesting coffee and giving away free stuff so often? Oh well, I enjoyed the book, the writing was good. Good narrator. What a terrible person Gertrude was! Can't wait to hear more about How Jessika does in the next book!

Just awful. Can’t find a good word to say

The book is slow and ponderous. It’s sort of set up as quaint and cosy, but fails to be either.
Narrator is bland and monotone.
Just awful. One of the worst I’ve downloaded.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

It’s her voice 😩

Story is great but the narrators voice sound to M&S advert bluming dreadful. No feeling or expression in her voice

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Neat little story

I had listened to the second book first so went back to see how it all came about.

Although this book is short, it is action packed with characters and potential suspects. And I got to find out how Jessie came in the picture.

The cop is a bit of an idiot but turns out ok. The voices are different for the same people in the two different books, which was a bit annoying.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Awful narration

I think the story was ok but I was so distracted by the terrible narration I can't remember. The woman barely took a breath and used silly voices for the different characters, Barker being the most ridiculous. A ten year old would have done better at least they would have attempted some empathises. Took me three goes to get through it will never bother with this narrator again

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Wrong narrator

Storyline is ok but narration is absolutely awful. Sounds like a robot reading the story.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

A Miils and Boon of a detective story?

I am not sure what to think of this one. The main problem is the narration which gets in the way of the story. Its breathless and gushy with awful characterisations (the police detective Maker is so dreadful as to be almost unlistenable). I think the story if very light and fluffy might have been enjoyable but due to the above I cant make a value judgment. If the sequel has the same narrator I wont be buying it.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Poor reader

I was reccomend ed these stories. the story was steady but predictable.
the reader was awful.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator

The book was enjoyable escapism, but I couldn't enjoy it because of the poor narration.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful