A Cop and a Coop

Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries, Book 1

By: Hillary Avis

Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix

It's a mother-clucking murder!

When Leona Davis hatches a plan to return to her beloved hometown of Honeytree, Oregon, she hopes to build the egg farm of her dreams and leave behind the marriage of her nightmares.

But the yolk's on her when she breaks ground on her chicken palace and unearths a skeleton in her front yard. It's clearly fowl play. The bones may be decades old, but there's no statute of limitations on murder.

With a county forensics team roosting on her lawn and a flock of town gossips poking their beaks where they don't belong, Leona's well-laid farming plans may be nothing more than a wing and a prayer.

Her spicy high school ex, Sheriff Eli Ramirez, assures Leona he'll crack the case, but he's not exactly a hardboiled detective. Her best hope to get back to a life with more hens and less mens? Scramble to uncover her small town's buried secrets before everything's totally plucked.

A Cop and a Coop is the first book in the clever, irreverent Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries that will keep you chuckling and guessing until the end.

©2019 Hillary Avis (P)2020 Tantor

Cluck, cluck

Well, this turned out to be a very enjoyable cozy read. I didn't think I would like it at first but the author, Hillary Avis, proved me wrong. The characters were well written but the lead character irritated me a bit with her attitude. It was an excellent storyline and it flowed smoothly. Supporting characters blended very well into the story.
Leona Davis has returned to her hometown of Honeytree, Oregon after a bitter divorce. Her plans are to raise chickens and have an egg production business. While digging out the foundation for her chicken coop, she comes upon a pair if boots, but inside them are bones, the bones of a human. When she calls the local law, her old high school flame, Eli Ramirez, now the local sheriff, comes to investigate. Eli has never forgotten Leona and now that she has returned, he has no intention of letting her go again. Reluctantly, Leona becomes involved in the investigation. Together, along with help from their mutual friends, they work to solve the mystery of the buried body and track down a killer.

A mother-clucking good book!

Leona is exactly the type of cozy protagonist I love. Rebuilding her life after divorce, she digs up a body while working on the foundation of her chicken coop--and doesn't stop digging until the murder is solved.

Unlikable protagonist

Flying into a rant again and again then expecting a "sorry, I didn't mean it" to erase consequences is unrealistic. Why spend time with an accusatory insensitive main character?

Hard to listen

The storyline was predictable, but ok. But, the reader voice I found very hard to tolerate. I had to quit after chapter 14!

Loved everything

It was great. From the performance to the story line, it was wonderful. As a chicken keeper, it was even better.

A Cop and a Coop

This is a struggle for me to rate. It could have been a good book, but Leona made me hate it! She was what the kids today call a Karen, and I absolutely despised her! I kept hoping Eli would arrest her or tase her! My husband is a cop so I was looking forward to this book, but all I kept thinking was no way would he put up with that crap. Had she been a decent person, I would have liked the mystery aspect of the book, but I couldn't get past how horrible she was. The only reason I finished it was because I paid for it. I did like the mystery and didn't figure out the killer and I liked everyone else in the book.

Not for me

I couldn't finish this book. The plot didn't seem to bad, but I got tired of the main character, Leona Davis. I found her character to be incredibly prickly and rude. I also thought the policeman who was trying to pursue her was an idiot for allowing her to interfere with his investigation. I know that in cozy mysteries, the lead character often starts her own investigation, but, she crossed the line from being noisy to interfering with a police investigation. I thought I would be able to finish the book but I couldn't continue to ignore her abrasiveness. I returned this book and will not get another book in this series.