Murder of a Small-Town Honey

A Scumble River Mystery, Book 1

By: Denise Swanson

Narrated by: Christine Leto

When Skye Denison left Scumble River years ago, she swore she'd never return. But after a bout with her boyfriend and credit card rejection, she's back to home sweet - homicide....

©2000 Denise Swanson Stybr (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Disheartening

Am I the only one who finds this story incredibly disheartening? I am about half way through, so maybe it gets better. All her relatives are super mean to her, fat shaming her, disparaging her for getting dumped by her boyfriend, and humiliating her for words she said almost two decades earlier. All the men make misogynistic comments, and are very aggressive. Her mom is so mean to her, event the narrators voice takes on a strident tone when she voices the mom. Although the story is interesting and very well written, i find myself feeling depressed listening to it, because everyone is so mean to her. Maybe it gets better…?

Fun to learn how it all started, love this seriers

If you could sum up Murder of a Small-Town Honey in three words, what would they be?

Mystery with a kick

What was one of the most memorable moments of Murder of a Small-Town Honey?

Skye and Simon's first encounter, too funny and all too real to many of us.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love audio books so I can do something else while listening, consummate multi-tasker. Khristine is easy on the ears, especially when they are old ears. Easy to understand her and good tone and inflection while reading.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Can you believe this town is close to Chicago?

Any additional comments?

Light and entertaining. Skye never thought she would have to eat those words so carelessly said at her graduation, lesson for all of us. Loved the interaction of all the characters and will be fun to see how they all develop. (I started listening towards the end of the series.)

A good cozy mystery

This fit the bill for a good cozy mystery. It was entertaining, well performed, had a mystery that you were able to try to solve along the way. There weren't stupid things done by characters, and each one was defined well.
I will be checking out the next book as well

Enteresting how trouble finds Skye

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend it because it is a light listen and moves very well. Does not have so many characters that it is hard to keep track of them.

What did you like best about this story?

How Skye puts her nose into everything, and everyone just excepts it.

Mindless entertainment

Light listening. Knew who did it for a while before the amateur detective.
I might try one more of book.

Fun and easy listen

I liked the characters in the cozy mystery. It was a good and relaxing story. I think it’s exactly what a cozy mystery should be. I plan to listen to more in this series.

Fun listen!

Quick paced and clean fun - was able to listen at work and really enjoyed it!

A Decent Listen

Not the best mystery development, but when Christie and Sayers are your favorite, who does meet the standard? It sometimes felt like the author strayed from the characters' true personality, or maybe the character development was just lacking. The performance wasn't horrible, but this isn't going to be one of my favorite readers without a bit of improvement. This book was entertaining, but didn't leave me rushing to download the second in the series.

Nice introduction to the series

I thought this was a good introduction to the series and I liked that the lead character held a professional position outside of the culinary or home repair type positions that are in most cozies. I thought the narrator was decent but not outstanding. Overall it was worth the listen and I plan to carry on with the next book in the series.

Takes me back

The author definitely nails the issues of a school psychologist and I quite enjoyed it because of that but not a book I think I will follow up - it was OK but some time down the track I am pushed to remember what it was all about beyond the odd chuckle over an Ed Psych dilemma