A Death in Duck

Lindsay Harding Cozy Mystery Series

By: Mindy Quigley

Narrated by: Holly Adams

With the new year approaching, hospital chaplain Lindsay Harding heads for a much-needed break in the peaceful resort town of Duck on North Carolina's outer banks. Her plan to attend the wedding of her friend, Anna, runs aground when a boatload of trouble washes ashore, and as the old year ticks down, the body count goes up. Thrust into the path of an increasingly desperate killer, Lindsay must uncover a sinister secret before she winds up swimming with the fishes.

Old family scandals, sunken World War II U-boats, obscene desserts, and a stolen Doberman all guarantee a far from restful break for the irreverent reverend, who makes her second appearance in this lively mystery.

©2014 Mindy Quigley (P)2015 Mindy Quigley

Great fun and delightful characters!

This delightful story was brought to life in an expert fashion by Holly Adams. As a North Carolina native, I appreciated her authentic accents and the charming way she told this tale! It’s a “feel good” murder mystery with interesting plot twists and characters! I just wish the third Lindsay Harding mystery was available in an audio book! I hope you decide to release that soon! I love this series!

Why not write women smarter?

My title says it all. This is not only about this book. I'm just getting tired of book heroines constantly making dumb, choices. It all works out in the end but it gets old.

A Death in Duck

I enjoyed this book. a lot! It was fun and interesting.There are so many people and so many things changing dramatically, it is hard to keep track of.The relationships feel real.Holly Adams was a great narrator.I was provided this book free by the author, narrator or publisher.

A great and entertaining story

Another entertaining read that didn't disappoint. Book 2 in the Lindsay Harding mystery series was just as good the first one. There's a lot of moving parts to this book, but at the core is the bizarre death of Lindsay's aunt Patty in the city of Duck. Great storytelling. Narrator Holly Adams delivers another spectacular performance and is just as good as any narrator I've heard. The various accents are truly remarkable. Lindsay's best friend Ron speaks English with an Asian accent. Her best friend Anna and her mother have a distinguished southern accent. Family friend Simmy has an unusual accent from North Carolina which I've never even heard of, and villain Leeland has distinct voice of his own. Keeping all these straight, switching back and forth between characters and narrator voice is magical. I'm still not sure how the good narrators are able to pull this off. Amazing! 

Welcome back Lindsay Harding

I'd enjoyed the first book in this series and so was looking forward to reading A Death in Duck, and I'll say right now, I would advise reading "A Death in Mount Moriah" first or you will miss out a bit on the back story.

Lindsay is a hospital chaplain, but don't expect any "holier than thou" heroine here, she can be as petulant, stubborn and emotionally fallible as the rest of us. Lindsay had a very strange and tough upbringing, and to say that her family is odd is an understatement. She sure has a lot on her plate with her work and relationships, even her work colleagues are rather an unusual bunch. Added to this, Lindsays' fiancé has the perfect woman for a mother and an over the top dog crazy sister, Lyndsays' attempts to impress them on their first meeting goes comically awry.

For those who have read the first book and are familiar with Lindsays history, be prepared for some shocking revelations, amid the murder and the mayhem many old family secrets rise to the surface. I was actually quite shocked at one event!

Not only does Lindsay have to deal with her own family, her friends are making huge demands upon her good nature, and all the while, with the body count rising, her relationship with Warren is becoming very strained.

I didn't think this book as humorous as the first, which had made me laugh aloud and this was a bit of a disappointment, but the storyline is quite complex and clever, I enjoyed it very much.

Narrator
Another wonderful narration by Holly Adams who certainly had no easy task with these diverse characters, yet each one is well differentiated. I loved the accents, I did think one was a little peculiar, I'd never heard it before, luckily an explanation for it was woven in to the story. Holly maintains a comfortable pace with a lovely rhythmn, and she had no trouble in coping with all those male characters, I think Rob must have presented quite a challenge. Excellent job and a good recording.

This audiobook was given to me by the author, publisher or narrator in return for an honest review

Duck is a very odd place indeed.

Note: Even though this is Book 2 in the series, it works mostly fine as a stand alone novel.



Hospital chaplain Lindsay Harding is hoping to have a fun get away for her friend Anna’s wedding in the quiet town of Duck in North Carolina. However, tensions soon rise as the mother of the bride takes over and makes a simple pleasant wedding into a giant, stress-filled production. Then a body washes up on shore just to add to the festivities. Lindsay is also drawn into some family conundrums she wasn’t expecting as her mother unexpectedly shows up. Plus her aunt is having some argument with her oldest friend. I thought this book would be a bit fluffy, a light read and I wasn’t sure I was in the mood for that. I wanted a murder mystery I could sink my teeth into and that is what the author delivered with this book. True, there are several moments of comic relieve, but they are well balanced with death and loss. Lindsay has a lot piled onto her throughout this story and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her rise to the various challenges.

So let’s start with my one caution. I jumped into Book 2 of this series because that is the book I won from the narrator. It works mostly well as a stand alone novel except for all the family entanglements that Lindsay has concerning her mother and her aunt. Lindsay’s mother’s ex-boyfriend is a violent repeat offender and apparently he did some damage in the past, which I think was covered in Book 1. So, there’s tons references to those events and how they relate to some of the stuff that happens in this book. I would have enjoyed this book a little more if I had read Book 1 first because of these references to past bad deeds.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, I can continue to tell you how much fun this mystery was. Lindsay is a very human character. She is flawed, she makes mistakes, she has emotions. I like that life is messy for her. All sorts of misunderstandings happen throughout this book, usually with Lindsay inadvertently at the center of them.

Then there is the lost Doberman. He’s adopted by Lindsay’s aunt and later by her and also her boyfriend. The dog is a stalwart companion and also provides a little doggy relief from a few tense scenes. Lindsay’s love life is a mess and the dog knows it. He’s a bit f a comfort to her at times.

The bodies continue to pile up and one of them really hits home for Lindsay. She sees red over it and wants the killer caught or dead. To figure out who the killer is, Lindsay must interact with her family, which is not something she wants to do. A lot of intense moments come with these interactions as family secrets are revealed. Her mother is quite an interesting character because of how various people choose to treat her. She’s very self-centered and something of a manipulator. She’s not above pulling on family heart strings to get what she thinks she needs.

The murder mystery had me guessing for most of the book on both motive and on who did it. We have a few suspects from the beginning and Lindsay has to figure it out before she herself becomes the next body to wash up on the beach. Once it became apparent who was behind it, then it became a cat and mouse game to see who would come out on top, rolling that murder mystery tension up into a thrilling catch the killer or escape from the killer tension. All in all, it was a fun and sometimes intense murder mystery.

I won a copy of this book from the narrator with no expectations attached.

The Narration: Holly Adams did a superb job with this story. She had various regional accents for the characters (as sometimes described in the story) and I can only imagine the research she had to do to pull this performance off. Her male voices were believable and each character was kept distinct. There are several emotional points throughout the book and the narrator did a good job of imbuing those scenes with the proper emotions.

Great new series

This book was good but quite as light and humorous as the first. I thought the characters were likable and interesting. Excited for the next one!

Accents are pretty bad

I'm afraid the accents used and mispronounced town names ruined the story for me =\

The story was fine

One GOOD Mystery

Quite a chuckle, even if it is a murder story. I am not saying it is not without some fearful and worrisome parts. This is full of bad and good, lies and hidden secrets. The use of the fine old correct English language is something I appreciate. The main character being a Chaplin, should not stop you from enjoying this book. Nothing preachy or uncomfortable for the unaffiliated. There may be a few words of unacceptable language even found. All in all this is "my kind of murder mystery". ( My husband was on his computer and listened too). We had quite a few good laughs as the tale progressed, and since we both were enjoying listening, it played on to the end which took us to 2am!

Not bad. Not great.

Plot was a little thin. The humor was forced in spots but overall I liked the characters and was entertained.