Pushing Up Daisies

Daisy and Rose Mystery Series

By: Penny Clover Petersen

Narrated by: Sarah Logan

Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Daisy Forest knows a ghost when she sees one. True, she has never actually seen a ghost before, but she swears their transparency is a dead giveaway. Daisy, a volunteer tour guide at the historic Holly Hill Mansion, knows that Sophia Meade Long, the woman who once owned the mansion, has been dead since 1814. So, when a very transparent Sophia steps in front of Daisy’s little Prius one night and asks for her help, how could she refuse? Once again Daisy and her sister, Rose, find themselves up to their eyeballs in all sorts of shenanigans - chasing ghosts, holding séances, and searching for priceless Revere silver.

The sudden reappearance of their reprobate father, Dickie Forest, with a new and unlikely interest in the occult has them puzzled to say the least, and their mother, Angela, behaving at her eccentric best. What seems to be harmless fun takes a deadly turn when Daisy stumbles on the body of the mansion’s curator in the wine cellar, and Daisy is later attacked after a Gothic evening in the mansion. When the police seemed to be stumped, it’s up to Daisy and Rose, with the invaluable help of Angela, to calm the ghost and catch a killer.

©2017 Penny Clover Petersen (P)2019 Intrigue Publishing

Fun

This is the 1st audiobook that I've listened to by this author. I really enjoyed it!

Fun Read and Cocktails Too!

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.

This is the third book in the Daisy and Rosey Mystery series. It is standalone book with no cliffhanger ending. It can easily be read without having read any of the prior books in the series.

This book is a light, fun, quick read. Rosey, Daisy and their mother Angela are quirky but amusing characters. This time the mystery involves a ghost and dabbling with a Ouija board. And really, how can you not enjoy a mystery where the characters enjoy their cocktails as they solve a murder. Recipes for cocktails are included at the end of the book.

The narrator, Sarah Logan, does a great job with the narration. She is a different narrator from the previous two books [Kim Rossi]. Logan did different voices for the various characters. This was an enthusiastic and fun narration.

Ghostly

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
A really good creepy mystery with great comedy! Roses sister and mother can’t quite believe her when she says she saw a ghost let alone the ghost of someone who use to live in the historical mansion nearby. The descendant that owns currently supports her 100%. So is she crazy? Or is there actually ghosts haunting their town.
I will admit the surprise guest appearance of a particular character certainly keeps you guessing as to why they showed up.
I recommend to those who love ghost mysteries with a side of murder.

Good

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a nice, fun and cute mystery. I enjoyed it thoroughly and like the series by this author. The narrator was really good and was able to get the characters' personalities and differentiate voices very well

Mystery, paranormal, fun!!

Sisters Daisy and Rose get involved in finding the murderer of the curator of the Holly Hill mansion whilst volunteering there. They end up holding seances, talking to ghosts, and getting help from their bizarrely behaving parents.

When I started listening to this story I didn’t realise it was the third one featuring Daisy and Rose, although I do feel that this third book is able to be read as a stand-alone story.

The story was very enjoyable, with a whodunnit element, ghosts, ouija boards, treasure hunting, secrets, comedy, as well as a cleverly thought out plot to get us to the big reveal in the end. The book had skillful misdirections, making the book a lot less predictable and more eager for me to get to the end to find out whodunnit. I also really enjoyed the cute part at the end describing the cocktail recipes. How refreshingly original! (excuse the pun!)

Sarah was a good narrator, with nice variation in her tone for the various characters. The only part I didn’t like was that it felt that the reading was quite slow, but it came out much better when I changed the reading speed.

Overall, Pushing up Daisies was very entertaining and I do recommend it as a cozy mystery.

Note: This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this objective review voluntarily.

Fun Mystery

This is my 1st listen by author and I totally enjoyed this fun cozy mystery with good characterization. It is a bout Daisy who sees Sophia a ghost (loved the paranormal aspect) and along with Rose solves a murder and not the person I expected. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

Rose and Daisy are back with a ghost in tow.......

Pushing Up Daisies is the third in this series featuring sisters Rose and Daisy. These two ladies run a gift store in a small town outside Washington DC, and they are very close to each other and their mother Angela. I have read and greatly enjoyed the first two books in the series, but I think this third book could be read as a standalone. As with the previous books, Rose and Daisy are up to their usual amateur sleuthing, but they have some assistance this time not only from their mother and their dogs but also a ghost. For those readers that don't enjoy paranormal elements with their mystery, this aspect is a very small portion of the book and really just adds some additional color to an already fun story. The author uses great misdirection as Rose and Daisy investigate the murder of the curator of a local historical site, and I was completely surprised by the identity of the guilty party. As with all the books in the series, the authors throws in plenty of comedy with the antics of Rose, Daisy and most especially Angela, including seances, consultations with the ouija board, and covert (or not so covert) shadowing of suspects. I recommend the entire series and this book in particular for fans of cozy mysteries.

Sarah Logan does a great job with the narration. She is a different narrator from the previous two books, so I struggled in the beginning with the different voices for the usual characters. Although I preferred the original narrator, I thought that Logan did a good job differentiating between the characters and her performance was smooth and flawless. I liked that she added lots of enthusiasm to the spunky and zany Rose and Daisy, but I thought she was a little over the top with Daisy's frequent sighs.

I received a copy of this audiobook at my request in exchange for this honest review.

A bit too 'twee' for my taste

Is it possible for a cozy mystery to be too cozy? I'm afraid this one was, at least to me. The ghost element was what caught my interest, but it really wasn't a prominent plot point; there were long stretches of the book where it wasn't mentioned at all, except as a vehicle for introducing Ouija boards, seances, etc. In between, we were treated to such scenes as grown women donning wigs and glasses to spy on someone in a restaurant, saying things to one another like "drinkypoo" (given that they drank like fish, maybe they'd already had a few too many), uttering oaths like "Holy maple syrup!" "Holy London fog!" etc. It just tried too hard to be funny, and as a result, the humor seemed forced. The mystery didn't seem that compelling, either. I was more interested in whether the sisters' absentee dad would succeed in winning their mother back.

The narrator was easy to understand, but the sisters' voices were so similar that I had trouble telling them apart. I do give her props for giving dear old Dad just a hint of a British accent, as the text indicated, rather than trying to go full "Blimey."

I'm giving both the story and performance three stars, but not because either was bad; they weren't bad at all, just not to my taste. You may feel differently; clearly, other reviewers here have done so. If you like your mysteries the cozier the better, this may be just what you're looking for.

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The New Narrator Made a Huge Difference

I listened to the first book in this series and really liked it. However, my one complaint was that the narrator made them sound like ancient old ladies days from their deathbed. I was pretty sure they were both still somewhat young, but they just sounded so old! This new narrator makes them sound more their age, which is late 30’s, and the whole story just makes more sense now. They were doing things and acting in ways that just didn’t jive with their old lady voices before. While the voices are hard to differentiate from each other with this narrator, I still liked her way better than the old one. I did accidentally skip a book that came before this one, but didn’t really feel like I had missed out on anything, so, while I wouldn’t call it a stand alone story, it is okay to start with this book if you are so inclined. I like the three main characters in the books and I even like the supporting characters. I love that they aren’t nosy women who drive their neighbors batty with all of their snooping. Things just happen around them and their curiosity gets the better of them. There’s a touch of the supernatural in the books but not much and I love the way things work out with that. Now, I think I need to go back and listen to the book I accidentally skipped. I received this book for free from Audiobook Boom.

Extremely enjoyable

I found this audiobook to be an extremely enjoyable listen. It has a great combination of murder, mystery and suspense. The narrator does a wonderful job reading this book