The Book Club Murders

By: Leslie Nagel

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

In a charming cozy mystery series debut, Leslie Nagel's irrepressible small-town heroine finds that her fellow book club members may be taking their Agatha Christie a bit too literally - and murder a bit too lightly.

Charley Carpenter has poured heart and soul into her clothing store, Old Hat Vintage Fashions. She'll do anything to make it a success - even join the stuffy Agathas Book Club in order to cultivate customers among the wealthy elite of Oakwood, Ohio.

Although mixing with the most influential women in town has its advantages, Charley finds the endless gossip a high price to pay. But after two women with close ties to the Agathas are brutally murdered, everyone falls under threat - and suspicion. When key evidence indicates that both murders are the work of the same hand, Charley realizes that the killer has arranged each corpse in perfect imitation of crime scenes from the club's murder mystery reading list. She uses her membership in the club to convince Detective Marcus Trenault to use her as an inside informant. Not that he could stop her anyway.

Intelligent, fearless, and every bit as stubborn as Marc is, Charley soon learns the Agathas aren't the only ones with secrets to protect. Passions explode as she and Marc must race against time to prevent another murder. And if Charley's not careful, she may find herself becoming the killer's next plot twist.

©2016 Leslie Nagel (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A home-run debut...with action, adventure and murders involving mystery books, it is sure to please every cozy mystery fan! I highly recommend adding The Book Club Murders to your fall reading list." ( The Cozy Mystery Journal)

"Charley Carpenter is my kind of woman - smart, strong, and independent. She makes an engaging and utterly appealing new detective. Book some time with Charley today!" (Michael Lister, New York Times best-selling author of Blood Oath)

Be will to suspend belief

Any additional comments?

I am weary of five star reviews, so I take the time to read comments. This book has a great plot, however, the romance, as written, is more appropriate for a YA book. The relationship of the police department working with the heroine is beyond belief, and allowing her to take over the murder room is laugh out loud silly.

Narrator needs a studio

The story was decent. The narrator was good. But the recording itself was distractingly echo-y. Like it was recorded in a bathroom. All hard surfaces.... no sound absorption.

I'd buy another if this is a series. Just need to improve the recording process.

Good if you're under the age of 30.

Any additional comments?

Honestly there were so many high school-ish emotions running rampant that I really didn't care "who did it". It was exhausting. I was relieved to finally get to the end although the story was quite good. Good narration.

Did not get to finish book.

The book had great characters, a great storyline and plot but the language was very offensive. For Christians it is hard to hear the Lord's name taken in vain or used in a frivolous manner. I loved the book and the characters but had to stop listening because of this. The language in my opinion did not make the story any better or add anything to the characters.

Story good narrated poorly

Story good but sounded like the narrator was in a well if her other book like this one won't buy

NOT A Clean Cozy

The language is bad. The F word, GD, BS, SOB and B all throughout. I read cozies to escape foul language, explicit sexual content and graphic violence. This is not it.

Boring start

I actually did not finish this book. It sounds like it was written with a thesaurus in hand.

Excellent start to a new series

Leslie Nagel has written a great story for the beginning of her new series. If you're a fan of cozy mysteries, I highly recommend this audiobook.

Awesome new series

I can't wait for the next book. What a great beginning to a series. I really cared about the characters and what became of them.

The Title Caught My Eye

The title of this book is what really interested me because of all the books and audiobooks I read and listen to and share with family and friends.
Charley Carpenter lives in the small town of Oakwood, Ohio and has a clothing store call Old Hat Vintage Fashions. Charley joins the Agatha Book Club (also known as Agathas) in order to cultivate customers who are wealthy. The club has a lot of gossiping before talking about books but when two women in the club are brutally murdered and under threat of being the next victim, Charley gets involved in solving the murders because she thinks one of the Agathas might be the murderer or has a grudge against them.

WoW

I got so engrossed in the audiobook I struggled to stop listening to it.
Narration and storyline both superbly done

More Mills and Boon than mystery

The mystery was ruined by constant references to hearts beating. I was not expecting to have to constantly skim through a romance novel !