Meet Isabel Puddles

Mitten State Mystery Series, Book 1

By: M.V. Byrne

Narrated by: Angie Hickman

To the tourists and summer residents, Kentwater County is a picturesque community of small-town charm, fruitful farmland, and gorgeous freshwater beaches. To middle-aged widow Isabel Puddles, it's where she enjoys breakfast every morning at a local cafe with her childhood best friend and spends her evenings cozying up with a good book and her devoted Jack Russell Terrier, Jackpot. In between, Isabel makes ends meet through a variety of trades - preserving pickles, baking pies, working the counter at her cousin's hardware shop, and occasionally helping "fix up" the hair of corpses at the local funeral parlor.

When Isabel discovers a two-inch nail embedded in the skull of Earl Jonasson, it seems the octogenarian may not have died of a stroke. His son is quickly arrested when his alibi doesn't check out. But Isabel has known Earl Jr. since they were kids and can't believe he'd murder his own father, regardless of his financial difficulties. As gossip about Earl Sr.'s land and insurance policy money starts to spread around the county, Isabel finds herself conducting her own investigation to clear her friend's name. But real detective work isn't like Jessica Fletcher's Murder She Wrote mysteries, and she's meeting dangerous suspects who don't like Isabel poking around in their business....

©2020 M. V. Byrne (P)2020 Tantor

What a fun ride!

I loved getting to meet Isabel Puddles and hope she has more cases to solve... It’s a great mystery book, with amazing characters and set in a location that I hope is real. And the story has some refreshing takes - the heroine is a sweet, middle aged average gal who’s good at cracking cases because she really cares about people. And it’s fun seeing “mid-western sensibilities” clash with her need take charge and do what’s right. (A struggle I get). Having read a bunch of mysteries - good and bad - I can confidently suggest this one as a treat of a who-done-it.

I just couldn't let this finish

My apologies; I don't like to be critical and recognize it takes a great deal of effort to write and publish a book. But I could not get through more than a third of this story. I liked the plot's idea, but this was way too slow, overly detailed, and for me, the narration did not seem to fit within the storyline type. I will give book two a try if one becomes available but could not listen any longer, rare for me.

I should have read the reviews

As others have said, the idea is charming, but the execution is not. This would have been a good first draft, which then could have been tightened (plot) and embellished (characters and dialogue) to be a lot of fun to read. Gave it until halfway through, then decided to move on to a more interesting book.

Not for me

Meet Isabel Puddles is boring with flat characters and an uninspired plot. I fell asleep listening to this book and will not get the next one. Angie Hichman is a pretty good narrator but she can't save this book.