The Dead Cat Bounce

By: Sarah Graves

Narrated by: Lindsay Ellison

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine. When Jake's best friend, quiet and dependable Ellie White, confesses to the murder, cops and journalists swarm into the snowbound Eastport. Jake smells a cover-up, and begins poking into past history between McIlwaine and Ellie's family. But someone doesn't like nosy neighbors...and Jake's rustic refuge may become her final resting place.

©1997 Sarah Graves (P)2009 BBC Audio

too slow of a story...

I wanted to like this, but the story line was just way too slow for my taste.

Strong beginning to an everchanging series

I really liked this book. I've listened to all but the last of this series and have mostly enjoyed all of it.

DCB is what I consider a cozy mystery. It also has some ghostly overtones. It's in the first person. All these add up to a big yes from me. Later in the series though, it seems as if Ms. Graves wants to venture into psychological thrillers and gives us some truly awful human beings - and third person narrative. It's my opinion that it would have been a good idea to do that with a new series instead of changing the entire tone of her books. In addition, things or problems stated in the first few books (I don't want to do spoilers here so I'm trying to be careful) become extreme and overbearing. They don't feel like a slow reveal, they feel as if the author changed her mind about her characters, unraveled, and re-knitted them. The calm voice of sanity deposited into murderous situations became much more caustic than I was comfortable with.

Also, the ghosts are intermittent in the series. We get a feeling that there's more to find out, but, after 15 books, I still don't know much about them.

Lindsay Ellison is wonderful. Her voice is homey and still interesting. A voice you can settle in with. Her New England accent work is very very good. I wouldn't have minded a bit more character differentiation though. Sometimes (but not always) it's hard to know who is saying what.

This seems like a bad review for a book I really liked. I can highly recommend the first handful, but look out for the third person and the dual (or more) POVs that start to pop up...but maybe they won't bother you as much as they bother me.

Boring

I am sorry but this book is a snore. I tried but could not get thru it...

Good story

The story line is very long and drawn out. The overall thread eventually brings the thoughts together. A lot of unnecessary filler that finally in the last two chapters makes sense. Not a book I will re-read.

Slow starter, but gradullay gets there.

Would you try another book from Sarah Graves and/or Lindsay Ellison?

I would consider one more book, this one was slow to start and hard to get into.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator didn't put enough effort into the various characters.

Do you think The Dead Cat Bounce needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

There is a number in the series.

Any additional comments?

Sleeper, almost didn't listen to it.

A good who-done-it?

Any additional comments?

This book is compared to diane mott davidson and her culinary mysteries, there are definitly a lot of similarities. If you like her books, you will most certainly like this one.

Difficult to follow

Went four chapters and couldn't follow book. I liked the narrator voice it was easy to listen to

Down East Maine at it's Best!

This is the first book in a series with each book a great stand alone. The author creates great storylines along with sidebars of humorous home repair perils. Makes me want to visit up north!

can't get past the narrator's voice...

struggled to get into the story with the narrator's gravelly voice and lack of inflections for different characters...

Chapters were repeated...

Like plot until chapters kept repeating. Hopefully the repetitive chapter will be fixed so we can enjoy book.