Beyond a Reasonable Stout

Sloan Krause Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Ellie Alexander

Narrated by: Carly Robins

It's the dead season in Leavenworth, Washington. The throngs of Oktoberfest crowds have headed home, and the charming Bavarian streets are quiet and calm - momentarily. Villagers use the reprieve to drink in the crisp fall mountain air and prepare for the upcoming winter light festival. Soon the German-inspired shops and restaurants will be aglow with thousands of twinkling lights. Visitors will return to the northern Cascades to drink warm mulled cider and peruse the holiday markets. Brewer, Sloan Krause and her partner in crime Garrett Strong are using the slowdown to stock up on a new line of their signature craft beers at Nitro.

Sloan is in her element. She loves the creativity and lowkey atmosphere at Nitro. Only that is soon threatened by the incumbent city councilmember Kristopher Cooper. Kristopher is running for re-election on a platform of making Leavenworth dry. Everyone in beertopia is fuming. Kristopher wants to banish beer, a policy that might just bankrupt the entire village. However, Kristopher turns up dead days before election night. Friends, family, and every other business owner had a motive to kill him, including none other than April Ablin, Leavenworth's self-described ambassador of all things German. Sloan finds herself defending April and trying to sleuth out a killer amongst a group of familiar faces.

©2019 Kate Dyer-Seeley (P)2021 Tantor

So Glad To Be Back In Leavenworth, WA

I have missed Sloane, Garrett, Alex, and the Krauses. Things (though not the weather)are heating up in Leavenworth: a candidate who wants to make the village dry, a murder, and more information about Sloane's past are among the most important. I would love to visit this little Bavarian(ish) village some day, and I don't even drink beer. So, now the bad part: the wait for Book 4 on audio. Please hurry.

Oooh… what’s next?

I’m very intrigued about what is to come. I love the undertone of a story about Sloan’s background. Although I understand that Sloan is dealing with her divorce, I’m also ready for the relationship between Sloan and Garrett to proceed. Looking forward to the next installment.

Good God Learn to pronounce German

If you know the least bit of German, you know the letter J is pronounced like a Y. While the narrator’s characterizations are generally fine, she made no effort to approximate German pronunciation, and it’s incredibly distracting.
Other than that, this cozy mystery is cute and does the job.

As good as the first two books!

I am loving this series! The narrator is wonderful to listen to and the storyline is as good as the first two books.

Pretty good

Beyond a Reasonable Stout is pretty good. It kinda fell flat at some parts of the story but I'll get the next book.

What a great read!

I live in the greater Seattle area and I LOVE how perfectly the author describes Leavenworth. Great character development t! I’m looking forward to reading the next book!!!

Right narrator, wrong book

As much as I like this narrator, I feel that she doesn't do the story justice. I felt as though I was listening to a teenager/YA novel versus a cozy murder mystery. Not only that, I had trouble differentiating between the character's different voices. There seems to be some type of continuity/ timeline issues because going based off of the first two books in the series, I was under the impression that Sloane was at least in her mid to late 30s, not her mid-40s, especially considering how she mentioned meeting Mac in her early twenties and then almost getting immediately pregnant with her son, who is only 15 while Mac was older than her, and supposedly almost 40. There is also the will they won't they with her partner/boss Garrett that's starting to get old. She acts like shes much younger than shes supposed to be. I really enjoy the series, the mystery surrounding Sloan's life before Leavenworth and the Bavarian town and it's cast of quirky characters, and I will continue reading but I would like it if the author would be more consistent.