Tip a Hat to Murder

Logland Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Elaine L. Orr

Narrated by: Kevin Iggens

Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

When the owner of the Bully Pulpit Diner decided to stop letting servers accept tips, he figured the raise he gave them would keep them happy.

Apparently not. Or were some of his other hobbies what got poor Ben Addison killed?

Police Chief Elizabeth Friedman contends with angry food servers, rowdy frat brothers at Sweathog Agricultural College, a batch of customers who seem to know nothing, and a thief who must have really wanted something from Ben.

One of them keeps a good secret in the small town of Logland, Illinois.

Join Elizabeth, Medical Examiner Skelly, and an offbeat group of characters who will tackle a murder and tickle your funny bone.

©2016 Elaine L. Orr (P)2017 Elaine L. Orr

Book 1

Any additional comments?

There's just enough quirkiness to bring a smile from time to time, and who would have considered a change in tipping policies to be a possible motive for murder? A great beginning to another Elaine Orr series! very entertaining audiobook.

Worst narration.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Story itself was alright, just another who-done-it mystery story. But skip this audiobook, since the narration is pretty bad. If you must, read it in Kindle instead.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

There's no emotion in the narration at all. Kevin Iggens narrated the story like reading the book line by line, without any interest. No matter what the character was feeling, the narration tone was the same.

All characters had the same sound. No distinction whatsoever.

There aren't proper pauses between sentences or even when the dialogue's speaker changes. It gets very confusing because of that.

All in all, this might be the worst narration I've ever heard. I couldn't bear it more than a couple hours.

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook for free from the author / narrator / publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Murder

This book was pretty good. It was a mystery about who killed the owner of a restaurant. I like cozy mysteries but this one was mainly regular mystery story and just was not for me. I received this book as a gift in exchange for an honest review. I am willing to give this series another chance and would read the next book in this series.

A struggle to finish

I had trouble finishing this book.
The story wasn't bad, but it was a bit hard to follow, although, that could be the fault of the narrator.
Kevin Iggens doesn't distinguish the characters very well. If it wasn't written with who said what, you weren't quite sure which character was talking. Iggens voice is fairly unemotional as he read this book, making it hard to get immersed in the story.
The story had humorous moments, quirky characters, but something was lost in the vocal translation.
Normally I enjoy this kind of mystery, but I think this may be one I need to read it myself versus listening to.

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

Murder with a side of humour.

Tip a Hat to Murder is a nice mix of cosy and police procedural. The main character is a former homicide detective from Chicago. Burned out from her job in the big city, Elizabeth Friedman has taken on the position of Police Chief in small town Logland, Illinois. Her first murder investigation revolves around the death of Bully Pulpit Diner owner, Ben Addison. Was he really killed because he axed tipping in his restaurant, or could there be some other deeper darker reason?

Elaine L. Orr has created a fictional small town with all the fun and foibles of small town life. The story contains a cast of both interesting and wacky characters, and while they are not fully fleshed out in this book, it provides room for the author to expand on character backstory in subsequent books. The story was a pleasant, light read and well written.

Narration: Kevin Iggens has a pleasant voice and reads at a decent pace. He doesn't do distinctive voices for each character, but he does a nice job of changing his tone of voice to fit with the emotion and action of the story. It's easy to tell that he enjoyed telling the story, which adds to your own enjoyment.

To those who like to know... there is no graphic violence or sex. There is some mild cursing.

I received a free copy of Tip a Hat to Murder in exchange for an unbiased review.

Good story, bad narration

I liked the story, it had promise - at least I think it did, it's hard to say for sure because I was so distracted by the narration that I had a hard time following the story.

My issues with the narration were: Total lack of proper inflection - he completely failed to convey emotions - this book could have been very rich if only Mr. Iggens had conveyed any of the emotions that were written at all. A lack of proper pausing - there were times it was hard to realize that the conversation had switched to another character because there hadn't been a pause where there should have been. No difference in characters' voices - every voice was read the same as the narration, no difference whatsoever. A few mispronounciations/wrong words (it's haphazard, not "half"hazard). And lastly, why have a man read a book where the protagonist is female in the first place? I could have gotten past that if he'd at least given a good performance.

Sorry Mr. Iggens, I tried to like this, I really did, but your performance just didn't work for me.

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

Diner mystery

If you could sum up Tip a Hat to Murder in three words, what would they be?

entertaining, surprising, interesting

Who was your favorite character and why?

Police chief Elizabeth as she was in charge, but handled people well.

What about Kevin Iggens’s performance did you like?

Pleasant voice. Clear and understandable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Surprised by who the actual culprit was.

Great first book in series

Any additional comments?

When the owner of a small town diner is found dead inside the diner, Police Chief Elizabeth Friedman has her work cut out for her. Everyone she interviews can not give her any information about who may have wanted to kill the deceased. She has a lot of possible suspects...employees that are upset about the recent change in the way they are paid, customers that may have had an issue with the owner, and a group of picketers. If a murder investigation isn’t enough she also has to deal with a rowdy group of frat boys that keeps getting into trouble. Will she ever find the murderer?

Author Elaine Orr states she originally planned this book as a stand alone but she enjoyed writing it so much she decided to turn it into a series. Her feelings for the story and the characters show in her work. I really enjoyed to quirky cast of characters. This is a very well written book and the mystery holds out until the end of the book. I was completely surprised by who the murderer was. I usually read cozies, even though this book is more of a police procedural there is a little bit of a cozy feel. There is no graphic violence, sex, or language.

I listened to the audio version of this book. Narrator Kevin Iggens did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life. His storytelling ability is evident. He did a great job with accents, timing, and giving each character his/her own personality by using tone of voice.

I would recommend this book to mystery lovers of all kinds. I voluntarily reviewed an Audio Copy of this book, above is my honest opinion.

Good

A story that keeps you guessing as to who done it and why. I tried to figure it out several times, but was surprised in the end.

Death of a Diner Owner

Elaine Orr contributes another strong novel with Tip a Hat to Murder , set in the small agricultural college town of Logland, Illinois. Ben Addison, owner of the Bully Pulpit Diner, close to the campus of Sweathog Agricultural College, has decided to abolish tipping at his diner. This leads to picketing and more protesters shouting outside the diner than eating inside. Then, one night at 2 a.m., the police officer doing his patrol comes upon the body of Ben, who has bled to death.

The local police force, led by the young and capable Chief Elizabeth Friedman, sets to work on the case, and they quickly determine that the victim had been running a bookie business out of his diner, but does that have anything to do with the murder? They get stuck having to deal with the local fraternity, which steals their traffic cone. When the college police officer, who is also a chemistry professor, goes to retrieve the government property, the drunk frat boys sic their pet goats on him, pet goats that are clearly drunk themselves. The police clearly have to deal with plenty of juvenility as they do their own searching for a murderer and face the local protesters.

This book was a whole lot of fun to listen to. I really enjoyed every detail of the book. All the main characters come across in well-defined manners. The plot may seem basic, but it is handled in a strong, capable way that I found creative and well-done. But the best detail is the local surroundings that are painted so vividly that Logland seems like a place I not only can picture but have now been to visit.

Kevin Iggens does a fantastic job of performing the audio version of this book. He has a great voice that is appropriate for keeping something silly from getting off-track and lending gravitas to the ridiculous. Only a few parts of this book turn silly enough to warrant such a need, but besides his skill in coping with the silly details, Iggens also demonstrates a gift as a storyteller in general. With the book’s setting in an agricultural town in the Midwest, I feel like I’m sitting back on the porch of a farm, maybe even in Lake Woebegone, ready to be transported to a third location for another adventure.

I have become a fan of Elaine L. Orr’s Jolie Gentil’s series, set in the coastal tourist town of Ocean Alley, NJ, but Tip A Hat to Murder is the first book by Orr not outside of that series to be made into an audiobook, and I am very pleased with the result. I thoroughly loved this book and can’t wait for the audio release of more in this series.

Disclaimer: I received my copy of this audiobook for free from the narrator, but that in no way has any effect on the content or quality of my review.

Who killed Ben Addison?

It took me a little while to get into the audiobook version of this who-done-it, and I had to rewind the first hour to listen to it again. I'm not American, so I'm assuming it was the narrator's slightly fast American accent that stumped me. I sometimes find it can take a while to get into an audiobook because you can't listen to the details of new characters and places at your own pace.

The opening hour of the book related to an American diner, The Bully Pulpit (strange name!), whose boss, Ben Addison, had announced that tips were being stopped and replaced by a (small) increase in hourly wages. The staff were up in arms, but it also prompted demonstrations from the local agricultural college, some of whom were for tipping and others who were against. Then the college debate team got involved, interviewing the demonstrators and generally causing mayhem. Unfortunately, amongst all this chaos, Ben was murdered.
Was it one of his staff, one of his customers, one of the demonstrators.....?

Enter the local Police Chief, Elizabeth Friedman and her friend, Medical Examiner Skelly, to unravel the clues and bring the perpetrator to justice.

I'm not quite sure what the term 'Cozy Mystery' means, but I assume this would fall into that genre. It sort of rumbled along, gathering clues, adding new suspects, eliminating others, until we discovered who had committed the murder, and why.
I enjoyed it while it lasted but I wouldn't search out this author again. The audio version, in particular, is probably more suited to an American audience.

My thanks to the author, publisher and narrator, who provided me with a free copy of this audiobook through Audiobook Boom via Audible, in exchange for an unbiased review.

Change the chilli recipe!

What did you like most about Tip a Hat to Murder?

This is a perfect pairing of story and narrator. The easy going policing of a small agricultural college town is matched by the pleasantly gentle verbal amble of Kevin Iggens. The owner of a popular 24 hour diner is found dead early one morning. Nothing seemed to have been stolen. The police chief, a woman, had recently transferred there to escape the homicides so frequent in Chicago, whilst her colleagues, all male, had never had to investigate a murder before and, as in any small town, knew most of the locals and their secrets, pretty well. The victim had been well liked by everyone including his serving staff, despite the recently imposed 'no tips' imposition which had reduced their incomes and divided the college fraternity which started demonstrations for and against.The search for the killer is slow moving, introducing the other residents of the town and each is beautifully painted, everyone becoming a rounded personality. It is the very real aspect of this book which is so appealing. Both the happenings and the conversations feel authentic..

What about Kevin Iggens’s performance did you like?

This reality is further enhanced by Mr.Iggen's performance, who voices each of the protagonists clearly as individuals, whilst his text reading between conversation mirrors the emotional content, gently accented and warm and easy to hear. No fireworks but fully tonal.

Any additional comments?

I loved listening to this book and was saddened when it ended. I felt connected to the town and it's inhabitants and really wanted to know more about them and their ongoing futures. Although a stand alone story, there are hopes that author Elaine Orr might revisit the town and write another some time in the future. If so, I will definitely want to read it.
My thanks to the rights holder of Tip a Hat to Murder, who gifted me a complementary copy, via Audiobook Boom. A new author and narrator to add to my list of favourites.