Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection: Box Set Books 1-3

By: Barbara Venkataraman

Narrated by: Carrie Lee Martz

Books 1-3 of the Jamie Quinn Mystery Series, including:

Death by Didgeridoo Winner of the Indie Book of the Day award

Reluctant lawyer Jamie Quinn is still reeling from the death of her mother. She's pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It's up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it's too late. It doesn't help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn't commit.

The Case of the Killer Divorce

Reluctant lawyer Jamie Quinn has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It's business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie's client becomes the prime suspect. When she can't untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client's name. And she's hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father.

Peril in the Park

There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons - the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor who was passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there's a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it's too late.

©2014 Barbara Venkataraman (P)2015 Barbara Venkataraman

Jamie Quinn box set

This is a very good series.I found it fun to listen to.Great narrator!I was given this book for an honest review

great set of Mysteries

What made the experience of listening to Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection: Box Set Books 1-3 the most enjoyable?

having three stories to listen to instead of one

What was one of the most memorable moments of Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection: Box Set Books 1-3?

the whole thing I guess

Have you listened to any of Carrie Lee Martz’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no this is the first one and it was great

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes I couldn't put my device down I had to listen to it all

Any additional comments?

I got this book for an honest review from the author. I don't usually read or listen to mysteries but this set caught my eye and I had to ask for an arc to listen to

THIS 3 for 1 is a real winner!

While each book is capable of being a stand-alone, having them all-together-right-now is really the best! Each book is neither overlong nor glorified short story. Plot is well laid and moves along while drawing in the reader deeper and deeper. Characters are certainly that! No spoilers or plot summaries, the publishers do that.
CLM performs clearly and interestingly. The female characters are clearly differentiated and enhanced, but most of the males are burdened with appallingly accented drawls which I, personally found extremely annoying.
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no
cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast.com.

Good story

I enjoyed the books but not the narrator. It sounded like she was reading the script out loud for the first time

Each book gets better!

Death by Digeridoo:
4 stars for the short story, 3 for the uneven but fun narration

This is the first of a series and in it, we are introduced to Jamie Quinn, a lawyer specializing in family law whose beloved mother has recently died. To put it mildly, she is not coping well. But she is forced to confront life when her aunt calls her in a panic because her autistic cousin has been taken into custody for the murder of his music teacher. In this first book, we are introduced to her best friend Grace, who is a corporate lawyer, Duke Broussard, a former client who is a ladies man and a PI on the somewhat shady side, as well as her mother's cranky cat.

The story was fun, and I really liked that the murder weapon was an unconventional digeridoo. The DA is a real jerk, and at first, I thought I might have to worry about him doing a 180 and becoming a potential love interest, but thankfully, I don't think we have to worry about that.

I both read and listened to the narration, and while the narrator is fun, her voices are a bit uneven. Duke is pretty hilarious in the book, but with the narration, his drawl is just a bit too much. Reading his conversation was definitely more entertaining than listening to it. Still, I do like that the narrator tries to have fun with the voices and distinguish different characters from each other. Overall, I'd say her narration was fine, but not fabulous.

Overall, I love these shorter cozy mystery novellas. They're different from other ones I've read in that you have the opportunity to figure out who the murderer is from a pool of suspects. I think that would be more challenging with a novella-length story. However, there's just enough mystery to pique my interest, and I like that the solution to the murder doesn't come down to just Jamie. She has help from others, and while it's her desire to help the accused that drives it, it's not just her doing the solving.

The Case of the Killer Divorce:
I thought this was a stronger novella than the first one, and I enjoyed following the different threads in this story. We find out from book 1 that Jamie Quinn is a lawyer for family law, her mother recently died, she's never known her father, and she is close with her aunt and cousin. In this book, she is hired to represent a client in a contentious divorce when the client's husband is suddenly murdered, and she becomes the chief suspect. Naturally she ends up crossing swords/words with Nick, as she obviously disagrees with him about what happened. In the meantime, Duke helps her with a personal matter (not that kind of personal matter), and her friend Grace is there with her personal counsel as well. A new character is introduced, and this one holds a lot of promise for the future. Even with several threads going on, the author does a good job of developing all of them without getting us confused. Considering Jamie most definitely has ADHD, this is pretty good! Once again, I listened to and read along, but although I'm starting to get used to the narrator, I think the story is better than the narrator. Still, I love being able to listen while driving, and this narration definitely works for that. Overall, I'm enjoying the series and will be continuing.

Peril in the Park:
I'm really digging this series. Each one gets better, both in writing, and in plot development. It's perfect for when you're looking for a quick read with fun characters, a solid running plot line, and an interesting mystery with enough suspects to keep you guessing. Jamie now has a boyfriend Kip, and okay, he's kind of a boy scout and his name makes me laugh, but he's a genuinely sweet guy. This book is slightly longer than the first two, and as a result, the author has more time to develop her characters and it shows. I hope this trend continues!

Her friendship with Duke continues to develop, and although he is a total ladies' man and one that would normally make me want to run in the opposite direction, there is something genuine about him and I love that Jamie sees that about him. He is hilarious and generally an optimistic guy, and the excellent PI that she needs when she gets embroiled in these murder mysteries! He's a good friend to have in her corner.

The thread with her father continues, and I love that her friends help her out with this as well.

Overall, I loved this book more than the first two, and I am now firmly in the "I care about these characters" camp. Looking forward to the fourth book!

Some final thoughts:
I have both the kindle version and the audio for this series, and I would say the narrator is pretty decent. She attempts to do the voices and her Duke Broussard voice is hilarious. I also like her Jamie Quinn voice. I did read along to the narration and there were times when I just lost track of her voice and ended up reading ahead. I appreciated the narration for when I had to drive or something, but overall, I think I would have just preferred to read the series on my own.

3 Mysteries in a Box (yum!)

Books 1-3 of the Jamie Quinn Mystery Series, including: Death by Didgeridoo Winner of the Indie Book of the Day award Reluctant lawyer Jamie Quinn is still reeling from the death of her mother. She's pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It's up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it's too late. It doesn't help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn't commit. The Case of the Killer Divorce Reluctant lawyer Jamie Quinn has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It's business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie's client becomes the prime suspect. When she can't untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client's name. And she's hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father. Peril in the Park There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons - the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor who was passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there's a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it's too late.

While I generally don’t read books in series back to back, considering that too much of a good thing, in this case I did, partly because of the time constraint involving the expectation of the provider of this book, but also because they are each short books, so I read them, essentially as one long book, and it worked nicely.

These are charming little cozies, with the expected quirky characters, interesting, if not terribly tricky or convoluted mysteries, and just enough excitement to raise the pulse beat a bit. The quirky characters are very nicely done, and some, like Quinn’s nephew, are of more than a little interest. Of most interest, though, is Jamie’s life, and the ways in which she handles her problems. While she often seeks needed help, she is no clinging vine, and is a rather charmingly quirky protagonist in her own right.

One of the nice things about series books is that the author has time to develop the major characters, give deeper insight into their lives and stories, and build such things as settings with more care and attention than a standalone novel usually allows. The author has done all these things, and done them very well. While one could read any of these novels by itself and have a pretty good idea of the back-story, reading these books in order allows for a more fully developed sense of the people, their personalities, relationships and lives.

One of the drawbacks of series books is that they can allow for less tight plotting than a standalone book requires, since any plot difficulties or inconsistencies can be corrected in the next book. The author nimbly avoids this trap. Each of her plots is well developed, consistent and nicely constructed.

The narrator does an excellent job with this narration, and while at first I thought she had overdone the Southern accent of one of the series mainstay characters, I realized that it was quite possible that the character, himself, being more than a bit flamboyant, might well have overdone his own accent, for his own reasons (probably involving the charming of any ladies who happen to be in a 10 mile range), so in that sense, the narrator presented him perfectly! In fact, once I “caught on” (perhaps) I had to laugh a bit, and send her a congratulatory wink.

I would give this boxed set a strong 4.5 out of 5 stars, and the narrator 5 stars.

Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection

I really enjoyed this collection. The stories were light, uncomplicated, amusing and intriguing. This new author is one I plan to follow.

Unfortunate choice of narrator

These cozy mysteries are actually better than many if read instead of listened to, in my opinion. I honestly don't expect too much from a cozy ... enjoyable characters, some humor, a relatively coherent plot. I read them purely for escapism. This narrator is the worst I've heard. Her voice is not suitable, and her attempt to alter her voice for different characters is terrible! Stick to reading the Kindle books, which are inexpensive and deliver a reasonable diversion. Book two is the weakest, plot-wise, in my opinion.

What a Surprise!

I wasn’t sure about this series at the beginning. The first book was really short. But as I listened I get into the characters. I love the narrator when she plays Duke! Too funny.
I have been listening to James Patterson Murder Club series and the newest one is just bad. I am happy to find a new and fresh mystery like this!
I look forward to my library getting the series.

Boxed set

This boxed set was a gift from the author in return for an honest review. I enjoyed getting to listen to one book after the next. The story's were fun and entertaining. The narrator was OK.