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In Old Loves Die Hard, Lauren Carr continues the rags-to-riches story of Mac Faraday, an underpaid homicide detective who inherits 270 million dollars and an estate on Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Mac is settling nicely into his new life at Spencer Manor when his ex-wife Christine shows up-and she wants him back! Before Mac can send her packing, Christine and her estranged lover are murdered in Mac's private penthouse suite at the Spencer Inn, the five-star resort built by his ancestors.
Five women with seemingly nothing in common are found brutally murdered in a townhome outside Washington, DC. Among the many questions surrounding the massacre is what had brought these apparent strangers together only to be killed. Taking on his first official murder case, Lieutenant Murphy Thornton, USN, believes that if he can uncover the thread connecting the victims, then he can find their murderer.
The guys go away for a fishing weekend, only to get caught up in the murder of a journalist investigating fraud at a timber company. Meanwhile, the ladies are spending the weekend in the presidential suite at a posh resort, where Jessica Faraday is to accept a lifetime achievement award for her late grandmother at a murder mystery writers conference. But before they have time to get their facials, they get wrapped up in their own real mystery when an up-and-coming author ends up dead!
Spunky Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin's basement. It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star's roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show business bio.
There's a cat in the stacks...and he makes the purr-fect partner for a librarian-turned-sleuth. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows librarian Charlie Harris - and his Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. They also know his former classmate-turned-famous best-selling novelist, Godfrey Priest. But someone in Athena took Godfrey off the best seller lists - permanently, and with extreme prejudice. Now, Charlie and Diesel must browse through the history section of the town's past to find a killer.
It's the day of Bubba and Willodean's wedding. The sun is shining. There isn't a cloud in the sky. The pergola is decorated in high style with baby's breath and ribbons streaming galore, and the preacher is ready. So what can possibly go wrong? Just about everything can go wrong. While 22 types of canapes are being served along with gallons of mimosas, Bubba finds the one thing that he well and truly did not want to find. There's a dead body in his house. Then the dead body disappears while Bubba goes for help. Then the body reappears.
In Old Loves Die Hard, Lauren Carr continues the rags-to-riches story of Mac Faraday, an underpaid homicide detective who inherits 270 million dollars and an estate on Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Mac is settling nicely into his new life at Spencer Manor when his ex-wife Christine shows up-and she wants him back! Before Mac can send her packing, Christine and her estranged lover are murdered in Mac's private penthouse suite at the Spencer Inn, the five-star resort built by his ancestors.
Five women with seemingly nothing in common are found brutally murdered in a townhome outside Washington, DC. Among the many questions surrounding the massacre is what had brought these apparent strangers together only to be killed. Taking on his first official murder case, Lieutenant Murphy Thornton, USN, believes that if he can uncover the thread connecting the victims, then he can find their murderer.
The guys go away for a fishing weekend, only to get caught up in the murder of a journalist investigating fraud at a timber company. Meanwhile, the ladies are spending the weekend in the presidential suite at a posh resort, where Jessica Faraday is to accept a lifetime achievement award for her late grandmother at a murder mystery writers conference. But before they have time to get their facials, they get wrapped up in their own real mystery when an up-and-coming author ends up dead!
Spunky Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin's basement. It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star's roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show business bio.
There's a cat in the stacks...and he makes the purr-fect partner for a librarian-turned-sleuth. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows librarian Charlie Harris - and his Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. They also know his former classmate-turned-famous best-selling novelist, Godfrey Priest. But someone in Athena took Godfrey off the best seller lists - permanently, and with extreme prejudice. Now, Charlie and Diesel must browse through the history section of the town's past to find a killer.
It's the day of Bubba and Willodean's wedding. The sun is shining. There isn't a cloud in the sky. The pergola is decorated in high style with baby's breath and ribbons streaming galore, and the preacher is ready. So what can possibly go wrong? Just about everything can go wrong. While 22 types of canapes are being served along with gallons of mimosas, Bubba finds the one thing that he well and truly did not want to find. There's a dead body in his house. Then the dead body disappears while Bubba goes for help. Then the body reappears.
When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body. The highly perceptive Gemma is the police's first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance.
A twister, a kidnapping, and a murder - oh my! Scumble River may never be the same. For school psychologist Skye Denison, there's certainly no place like home. When a violent tornado devastates her small hometown of Scumble River, she can't see how the community will ever recover - especially since town councilman Zeke Lyons appears to have perished in the twister. But things get even worse for Skye when her police chief husband, Wally, disappears in the midst of investigating Zeke's death, and evidence arises pointing to foul play.
Bill Vokes has played Santa at the children's Christmas show for years. But with the show just hours away, he vanishes with no explanation. The whole village is baffled. Did something bad happen to loveable Bill, upstanding citizen, churchgoer, life and soul of the party and the holiday season? Jack and Sarah are on the case - and soon discover there are secrets about this Santa that no one could have imagined.
Amanda Graham inherited a rundown bed and breakfast, a starving cat, and some dead guy who's buried in her garden! What should've been a simple remodeling project and a new business in a small Oregon beach town winds up with her uncle named as the number-one murder suspect, a slew of odd neighbors and problematic townspeople, and Amanda wanting to just sit down and eat her weight in chocolate pie.
The only thing worse than a used car salesman showing up on your doorstep is finding one dead. After a scandalous divorce, Elise returns from the big city to her southern home town only to trip over the body of the town playboy. He leaves behind a heap of trouble that includes missing money, missing pets, and mourning lovers, and the suspects just keep piling up.
It was a hell of a long shot.... CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever - in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element.
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.
When Houston reporter Lucy Resnick cashes in her retirement to buy her grandmother's farm in Buttercup, Texas, she's looking forward to a simple life as a homesteader. But Lucy has barely finished putting up her first batch of Killer Dewberry Jam when an oil exploration truck rolls up to the farm and announces plans to replace her broccoli patch with an oil derrick.
In her first foray into the sleuthing game, resourceful, red-headed Hannah Swensen must find the right ingredients to solve two perplexing murders. One chilly morning on her way to The Cookie Jar, Hannah discovers Ron, the dairy delivery man, shot dead in his truck. When she begins to investigate, she suspects the dairy owner. But when he, too, is murdered, Hannah must look further afield for the culprit.
Miracle Springs is a place of healing. Strangers flock there hoping that the natural hot springs, five-star cuisine, and renowned spa can cure their ills. And, if none of that works, they often find their way to Miracle Books, where, over a fresh-baked scone from the Gingerbread House bakery, they exchange their stories with owner Nora Pennington in return for a carefully chosen book. That's Nora's special talent: prescribing the perfect novel to ease a person's deepest pain and lighten their heaviest burden.
Jack's a retired ex-cop from New York, seeking the simple life in Cherringham. Sarah's a Web designer who's moved back to the village find herself. But their lives are anything but quiet as the two team up to solve Cherringham's criminal mysteries. This compilation contains episodes 1 - 3: MURDER ON THAMES, MYSTERY AT THE MANOR and MURDER BY MOONLIGHT.
A Small Case of Murder is set in the quaint town of Chester, West Virginia, where everyone knows everyone, and there is never a secret that someone doesn't know. In such a small intimate village, how many disappearances can be left unquestioned? Following the death of his wife, Joshua Thornton moves into his ancestral home across country with his five children. While clearing out the attic, the children find a 34-year-old letter to their grandmother that implicates a local minister in an unreported murder.
Fame comes at a price. Some pay with their privacy. Others pay with their pride. Khloe Everest paid with her life.
Determined to get her pretty face in front of the cameras, Khloe Everest fakes an abduction only to make a grand entrance in the midst of a press conference held by Spencer's Police Chief David O'Callaghan.
Three years later, after failing to catapult her notoriety into a long-lasting celebrity, Khloe Everest returns to Spencer upon her mother's sudden death and seemingly finds another weapon to propel herself into the spotlight. Unfortunately, someone kills her before she can make this entrance.
In Lauren Carr's sixth Mac Faraday Mystery, Mac and his friends come up against reality stars, politicians, has-beens, and wannabes. Mac also finds himself face-to-face with an old foe from his past who had managed to escape arrest during their last encounter. Now, Mac sees that his adversary has only become more powerful, and dangerous, with the passage of time.
Intent to not let this killer escape again, Mac and his friends need to put all of their talents together to put a stop to a cold-blooded lady killer.
Note: Even though this is Book 6 in the series, it works just fine as a stand alone.
Three years ago in Spencer, Maryland, young Khloe Everest was reported missing by her mom after she received a disturbing phone call. However, it turned out to be a publicity stunt and all of the the Spencer police felt a fool when Khloe strolled up during a press conference on the ongoing search for the young lady. Now, she’s planning another publicity stunt in order to relaunch her grab for fame and fortune. This time, things don’t go as she likes and she ends up dead. So many suspects, so little time.
David O’Callaghan, the Spencer Police Chief, isn’t too excited to be called in to check out Khloe’s current residence. The wannabe diva’s social media went dark 3 days ago but David still remembers the sting of her first publicity stunt. Grudgingly, he offers to check it out provided all cameras stay outside. What he finds is quite grisly and the murder investigation is launched.
This book was pretty good though not my favorite in the series. The investigation into Khloe’s murder along with David’s courtship of an old flame, Chelsea, are the two things that stood out to me. There’s also a politician (along with his son) that has some old beef with Mac Faraday (retired DC police detective). That mostly faded into the background for me.
Here is my one criticism for this book. There are some characters that are gay or cross dress and all the characters who do so are on the bad guy list. I can’t tell if the main characters believe that homosexuality or cross dressing are signs of deeper problems and nefarious behavior or not. I’m on the fence on this because I haven’t come across other gay characters before in this series (to my memory). At any rate, I would have preferred that the characters make it clear that there are bad guys that just happen to be gay and not that homosexuality is a trait of questionable behavior.
Back to Khloe. She did have a big bombshell of a secret that she was teasing her followers with, promising to announce it to the world on a specific date. Initially, David isn’t too sure she had any real secret but he has to investigate nonetheless. It was a big secret indeed! I was surprised by this twist and it added a note of seriousness to story. Someone is a real jerk and needs to be taken down!
Then there’s Chelsea. She’s got epilepsy so she has a service dog, Molly, who can sense her episodes coming on and warn her early. Chelsea and David had a relationship in high school and David messed up big time. Back then, he cheated on her and he has regretted that ever since. Now he has a second shot with her and he’s doing his best to prove his sincerity. However, Chelsea is afraid of putting her heart out there again and being hurt. It’s a touch/don’t touch relationship between the two throughout the book. For me, it didn’t have nearly as much appeal as Randi from Book 4. Poor David, I’m not sure he will ever meet the right woman.
Anyway, David and Mac pull strings and dig in the past, calling in Cameron (who we know from the Lovers in Crime series) with her case files that relate to this one. She brought her cat Irving who is a big coon cat that resembles a skunk in coloring. Irving makes me laugh. No one likes being screamed at all the time. Meanwhile, Gnarly dog and Molly make a very cute couple.
All told, it was good. I enjoyed the central mystery around Khloe the most. It was good to have the pets around for comedic relief.
I received a free copy of this book via iRead Book Tours.
The Narration: Mike Algers did a very good job with this book. His female voices were believable and his characters were all distinct. He was great at sounding like a real jerk when giving voice to the foul-mouthed bad guys.
What made the experience of listening to The Lady Who Cried Murder the most enjoyable?
I enjoyed the character dialogue and the pace of the story.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
This story was a little more predictable than some of the other books I have enjoyed from this author--but, there were still enough twists and turns and action to keep me interested in the story.
Which character – as performed by Mike Alger – was your favorite?
I think Mac was my favorite character as this narrator gave him the voice I had imagined.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I never listen to an audiobook in one sitting--and I wasn't drawn to listen to this book beyond my usual listening times each day.
Where does The Lady Who Cried Murder rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The Lady Who Cried Murder would have to be one of my favorite audio books right up there with all of the others that I have read or listened to in the Mac Faraday Mystery Series. I have yet to find a badly written or uninteresting book that I have read or listened to by Lauren Carr.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
The Lady Who Cried Murder has one of those plots that pulled me in right from the first chapter. The beginning had the typical amount of setup, but when the murders happened it began a plot that kept me on the edge of my seat with my earbuds pressed tightly into my ears. I was so enthralled that I actually had The Lady Who Cried Murder playing on my Amazon Echo throughout the day so that I could go do things around my house without leaving the book!
Which scene was your favorite?
It would be very hard to pick out one scene in The Lady Who Cried Murder as my favorite, but if I had to it would be the scene at the end where all the puzzle pieces come together for both the characters and the readers/listener.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I personally believe that any of the books in the Mac Faraday Mystery Series would make for a great movie. If I had to pick a tagline it would something like Don't Fear Ladies Gnarly is Here.
Most enjoyable. I like the team work of Mac and his friends and their pets. Lots of action. Gnarly also plays an important to catch the crooks.
I hope Audible will quickly publish the missing books so that I can download the books in sequence.