Death on Tap

By: Ellie Alexander

Narrated by: Carly Robins

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

When Sloan Krause walks in on her husband, Mac, screwing the barmaid, she gives him the boot. Sloan has spent her life in Leavenworth, Washington becoming an expert in brewing craft beer, and she doesn't have time to be held back by her soon-to-be ex-husband. She decides to strike out on her own, breaking away from the Krause family brewery, and goes to work for Nitro, the hip new nano-brewery in the Bavarian-themed town.

Nitro's owner, brewmaster Garrett Strong, has the brew-world abuzz with his newest recipe, "Pucker-Up IPA." This place is the new cool place in town, and Mac can't help but be green with envy at their success.

But just as Sloan is settling in to her new gig, she finds one of Nitro's competitors dead in the fermenting tub, clutching the secret recipe for the IPA. When Mac is arrested, Sloan knows that her ex might be a cheater, but a murderer? No way. Danger is brewing in Beervaria and suddenly Sloan is on the case.

©2017 Kate Dyer-Seeley (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Beer,mystery and a hint of romance

She settled so hard on the husband so she could get the awesome family that came with him hopefully she move on to the new man and job and keep the family can’t wait for the next book so we can continue the mystery hinted at the end of this book

Great series start. Narrator superb.

This is the first in a new series of a first POV cozy mystery that takes place in Leavenworth WA. With accurate settings and town features. The main character is part of a family owned brewing business. Sprinkled along with the story are lots of brewing facts.

This mystery has lots of red herrings and suspicious odd town folk. While a small town, they are all getting ready for Octoberfest. The narrator brings the town and the town life to life. Totally worth a listen. I’m going for the next in the series to find out what’s next.

Good start for a series

Enjoyed the story. Good intro to the characters. Did not like the narrator changing her voice for the different characters. Her "acting" did not suit the characters and was more distracting than enjoyable.

Beertatstic

I absolutely loved this book. I have had it in my to read pile for awhile and finally decided to get it in audio. I loved the setting and fell in love with Sloan and her family and friends. I highly recommend this book and I am getting the next book in the series right away

Learned alot about 🍺

Enjoyed the story and getting to know dynamics of new place & new business of brewing. Interesting but not boring … good start to series🍻🍻

Mystery set in my favorite town

I could envision the whole story based on my time spent in Leavenworth and the great visual storytelling. The mystery kept me interested throughout the entire book.

Good Debut

I started listening to this book in the morning when I went on my morning walk. I finished later in the day after I made dinner. This is a really good book. I like the characters and the story. I look forward to the next book.

Series Review throught Book 5

The fact that I'm writing a series review shows that the books were good enough for me to stick with. But I think there will be readers who can't get past some real problems with the stories, so it's worth investigating before you dive in.

The good:
1) The information about beer is interesting, and Leavenworth, Washington is a real place, so the sense of place is very well-developed.
2) The narration is good to start and gets better as the books go on.

The neutral:
1) The murder mysteries are okay. Not great, not bad. The primary appeal of these stories comes from hearing about craft brewing and the town. But the mysteries are fine.
2) The writer does not have a nuanced understanding of younger people, and this impacts their dialogue and plotlines. If you don't care about that, it's something that's easily overlooked.

The bothersome:
1) These books lack editing. There are a lot of errors: continuity errors between books, continuity errors within books (!), and plotting that doesn't take correct account of timing.
2) To me, the protagonist is hard to like. Everyone in town seems to love her, but we are caught inside her head where she is judgmental, emotionally dishonest, and inflexible. I can imagine other readers liking her, but as the books went on, she became the least interesting and sympathetic character in the stories.
3) The plots are not tidy. Absurd charges get levied and then dropped in an offhand way, and sometimes plot points are never finished. It leaves the reader feeling a bit jerked around. Again, it seems like what these lack is a close-reading editor.

Beery fun

The details of brewing and tasting beer are entertaining, as is the location in a popular tourist town in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle Washington, at least if you have actually been to Leavenworth, it’s a draw. However why the heck did they choose to pronounce the Germanic name of the brewpub in an American accent, rather than German. It appears many times a page throughout the book and if you have studied any German at all it’s going to drive you absolutely nuts that they pronounce “Der” like dir. Other than that it’s an enjoyable cozy murder mystery.

long build up

the murder didn't happen until chapter 10 or 12. that seems a little too long for build-up, but I'm interested to see how the series improves