Cloche and Dagger

Hat Shop Mystery Series # 1

De: Jenn McKinlay

Narrado por: Karyn O'Bryant

Not only is Scarlett Parker's love life in the loo - as her British cousin Vivian Tremont would say - it's also gone viral with an embarrassing video. So when Viv suggests Scarlett leave Florida to lay low in London, she hops on the next plane across the pond. Viv is the proprietor of Mims's Whims, a ladies' hat shop on Portobello Road bequeathed to both cousins by their beloved grandmother, and she wants Scarlett to finally join her in the millinery business. But a few surprises await Scarlett in London. First, she is met at the airport not by Viv, but by her handsome business manager, Harrison Wentworth. Second, Viv - who has some whims of her own - seems to be missing. No one is too concerned about the unpredictable Viv until one of her posh clients is found dead wearing the cloche hat Viv made for her - and nothing else. Is Scarlett's cousin in trouble? Or is she in hiding?

©2013 Jennifer McKinlay Orf (P)2013 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Fancy hats and British aristocrats make this my sort of delicious cozy listen." (Rhys Bowen, author of the Royal Spyness Mysteries)

Enjoyable

I read this series a while ago and enjoyed it. When I saw it on your list had to listen to it again to see if was the same as before, it of course was. Fun listen give it a try

High Praise!

I read the other reviews and thought I would give it a go. I was immensely surprised on how much I liked it and will continue with the series. I really liked the reader as that can either make or break a story! Bravo!

New, to me, delicious find!

I realize this series has been around a while, but this audiobook was a wonderful surprise to me. Loved the story, the characters and, for once, the narration. It was such a pleasure to listen to a story where the narrator's gaffes didn't pull me out every couple sentences. Bravo Karyn O'Bryant! And bravo, Jenn McKinlay, for a delightful setting and group of characters. Just a fun experience.

I really enjoyed this book! Great narrative!

I really enjoyed this book! They narrator was excellent! I am definitely ordering the next book in the series!

Interesting plotline

I would be worried if I were invited to my sister's home and she wasn't there when I arrived, wouldn't you? That week after she arrived is curious, fun-filled and scary.

Main character immature and annoying, as was the plot.

I wish I had found a new series to like, but the main character was rather irritating, more like a petulant teenager than a thoughtful adult. I’d blame the narrator but I believe she was actually just performing her as she was written. Also, many of the plot elements were rather far fetched and the mystery was almost a side plot. Everything is resolved quickly in the last two chapters, as if the author suddenly realized she was running out of paper.

Cute.

This was a cute story. The narrator kinda sounded flat though. She read the way I would expect an elementary school teacher would. I wish the author would have developed more romance between Harry and Ginger.

Surprise, surprise,not you!!!

I found this book very cute and very Entertaining. I honestly had a little bit of a hard time trying to figure out who did the murder until close to the end, so many suspects. A good book to curl up with and relax. Well written for any age group. I personally was very impressed that there was not any of bad language, so these books are wonder for any one who wants a little of sleuth to figure out.

cute, funny, interesting

This was typical Jen McKinley writing. Cute, funny, mysterious, and a little bit of romance, sort of

Escaping the media to a murder

In Cloche and Dagger by Jenn McKinlay, Scarlett needs to be able to move past a meltdown that turned into a YouTube sensation. This leads her cousin Vivian to order Scarlett to move from her home in Florida to England and help with the hat boutique that the two cousins inherited from their grandmother and which Viv manages. But when Scarlett arrives in London, she gets surprised not to find Viv waiting for her, but instead the handsome Harrison, the shop's business manager, is there. Scarlett notices that he seems to run hot and cold towards her and learns that when she was 10, she stood up Harrison when he asked her for ice cream to chase after an athlete of some sort. He still holds this against her to some degree.

No one but Scarlett has much concern about the disappearance of Viv, who has been known to take off from time to time. Trying to take care of the shop, Scarlett impresses Fiona, the apprentice, by selling a hat to a woman who has never bought a hat from them before, despite visiting to look often. Then Lady Ellis and her husband, an earl, come into the shop to pick up a specially ordered hat. Trying to locate the hat, to the increasing ire of Lady Ellis, Scarlett gets the idea of asking if the lady would model her special hat for a photo shoot. Fortunately, that night Scarlett meets a new arrival to her neighborhood, who is setting up a photography studio. So Scarlett arranges a photo shoot for later that week.

But when Scarlett shows up with Andre on Friday to do the photo shoot, the housekeeper discovers the body of Lady Ellis, wearing nothing but the hat made for her by Vivian and stabbed in the heart. And with Viv mysteriously missing, she becomes the main suspect. This throws Scarlett and Harrison into a case for their lives.

This book is nice, light reading, but it does not live up to the standards of Jenn McKinlay"s other works. The mystery plot does not have a lot of development to it, with few actual clues to it. Instead we just see a few events happen to Scarlett but no real detecting or hints to help the characters and readers determine the killer. The redeeming feature of this book is the delightful characters in it. The gay couple down the street from the hat shop are two of the liveliest people in mystery fiction. The romantic tension between Scarlett and Harrison adds to the plot.

I enjoyed the narration of Karyn O'Bryant in the audio edition of this book. She creates good, believable voices for the voices based upon the descriptions in the book. Further, ahe does a good job modulating between the different accents of the various characters.

Cloche and Dagger comes across as a fun book, but it has a fairly incredible conclusion to the mystery that felt strange to me. Will I get book two in this series? Probably. I wouldn't if this were by an author unknown to me, but since I really appreciate the writing of McKinlay"s Cupcake series and Library series, I'll give the second book another shot. But for this book, I give it only three stars.