The Wilding Probate

A Bucky McCrae Adventure

By: D.J. Butler

Narrated by: Marie Caron

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Bucky McCrae won't take nonsense from you. Not if you're poor Evil Patten (named, with bad spelling, after Evel Knievel), and you just want to be Bucky's boyfriend and get through the summer without an accident on your highway construction job. Not if you're Bucky's dad - friendly, charming, and a little bit short on ambition, running your law practice out of the back of bowling alley in the rural northwest.

Not even if you're a stone cold killer, and you have Bucky in your sights.

©2020 Immortal Works (P)2021 Immortal Works

Adventure Indeed

Bucky is a fantastic character, brilliant, YW, that finds herself in quite the predicament. This is a great YA thriller, with enjoyable voice, and memorable characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure and hope there are more to come.

Fantastic Middle Grade & Up Mystery Thriller

Bucky is a 16 year old girl who helps run the office for her father's law office/bowling alley. She's smart, ambitious and through a series of events witnesses a murder and then finds herself a target. With the help of her boyfriend Evil their adventure takes off. I don't want to give anything away so I will just say if you like the mystery thriller genre with a touch of "MacGyver" feel at times then this is it. I'd say 14 and up, and yes adults will enjoy it too!

Parents- PG13- Due to very minor language, some sexual content- mostly insinuations, condoms used in a " MacGyver" fashion, violence with murder and injuries but not overly descriptive.

The narrator does a great job with the voices and acting, but I did need to up the speed to 1.25x. Also, there's a sound effect between each of the chapters that I found to be a bit distracting- bowling ball rolling and charging into pins- it's pretty minor but it felt unnecessary to me.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Loved it

This was such an enjoyable story. YA fantasy at its best and a great read for young & old. It has great characters & kind of a MacGyver feel to it. It has snarky humor which I love & plenty of suspense. Bucky is 16 and helps out in the law/ bowling alley. She witnesses a murder & then becomes a target a long with Evil who wants desperately to be her boyfriend. Evil is the MacGyver of the story and his antics will make you chuckle. I also loved the sound effects. All in all a great read.

Baskerville Book Reviews

I had a lot of fun with this story. It’s been far too long since I enjoyed a good mystery novel and this really hit the spot. The story starts out exceptionally slow and uninteresting. Thankfully it picks up the suspense and doesn’t let off. It just keeps going. There’s always something interesting happening or some crucial plot points of backstory being delivered.

The character interactions really shined in this novel. I’d be interested in following them through more stories, though I’m unsure how that would work plot-wise. It has a Scooby-Doo esque style to it. So I was able to predict some of the reveals along the way. The summary really doesn’t do the story any favors. It really doesn’t capture what the story is about.

Bucky McCrae is a 16-year-old who tries way too hard to be an adult. One of the characters even mentions how people think they’re way older and more mature than they are when they’re hat age. While it leads to an interesting and compelling story, as a role model for a younger audience, she makes a terrible example. She ends up putting herself and those around her in danger more often than not. Which is why I mentioned it being Scooby-Doo esque. The whole amateur, teenage detective thing she’s got going on. Only in this story, the danger is real.

I found the bowling alley sounds in between chapters to be a little obnoxious. Though it at least drew more attention to them than the standard line reading off a new chapter that I always miss or ignore. The narrator was pretty good overall. I never had any issue telling who was speaking. Though her mispronouncing words got really annoying. I don’t know how you get “ashfalt” out of asphalt. Perscription isn’t a word and she mispronounces you’re as your. Saying “My boss has what your looking for.”

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

Okay narrator, great main character

This was not was I expected it to be, in a very good way. It felt convincing, especially considering the premise. Narrator was a little off at times, but an excellent story.