Relic

The Morelville Mysteries - Book 1

By: Anne Hagan

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Cases collide for two star-crossed ladies of law enforcement! Customs Special Agent Dana Rossi was forced to start her life anew after a bad breakup with her former girlfriend and the loss of a job that she loved. These days, she spends life on the road, moving from one case to another until one day when runs run right into the path of Sheriff Mel Crane. The feisty, sexy butch cop is as determined to uncover a counterfeiting ring in her county as Agent Rossi becomes to stop a stalker obsessed with Mel and hot for her company. Dana is under the added pressure of conducting an undercover investigation of her own with a tight deadline: finding and then stopping a ring of smugglers bringing high-end designer knock-offs into the states.
Could their cases be related? When repeated vicious attacks on Mel and on her home accelerate the danger for her and also their attraction to each other, they become desperate to find the truth and solve the two mysteries. Can they find a way to work together to resolve both cases while coming to terms with their growing feelings for one another? Can Dana move beyond her jilted lover past and find true happiness with a small town Sheriff?
The debut novel from Anne Hagan, her Mel and Dana characters in Relic are a great addition to the pantheon of lesbian women sleuths like Jane Lawless in the novels of Ellen Hart, the characters of Gerri Hill like Detective Tori Hunter with the hard-boiled edges of the Sara Paretsky private detective, V. I. Warshawski.

Please use the ‘Look Inside’ feature to view the book contents and remember you can download a sample of “Relic” to your Kindle for free.

4.5**** I liked it

I liked the story and how it was brought to life for this cop and agent. I liked the mix of agency vs. sheriff's department and city vs. country veins running throughout. I'm never happy to hear about interagency non cooperation and resultant fubar, but humans aren't perfect and it takes a certain type of person to work as cops and agents. These were nicely captured in the storytelling. Nothing felt unrealistic, which I respect.

Also captured were decent representations of criminals and why they are criminals and that part of their lives (like family) are like everyone else's. The criminals focus on family was outstanding in contrast to cops focusing on careers. Showing both sides makes a good contrast to two cops working hard to avoid love at all costs. The commonalities and differences running through the core of this story are quite good.

I enjoyed the virtual voice chosen for this story because it's the kind of voice I like hearing with a timbre I'm comfortable listening to from beginning to end. Overacting a scene often just has me shutting the story down fast. I have to be in the mood for comedy and most of the time I want my police and security books to be very serious. This voice fit these characters who were written to be practical and sensible most of the time, and yet are still human. There are some surprises here too.

This virtual voice didn't interfere with the telling of the story by hyping everything to turn it comedic and silly. When it was necessary for the MCs to show emotion as part of the story, the virtual voice did show emotion. It had a few flaws, particular at the beginning of chapters (sounds like it's being choked out), but in all, it was a satisfactory listen on many levels.

Overall, this story, and especially the virtual voice, fit the women I know or have met who work in the justice system and are required to remain low key and professional on and off the job. I hope you stick with the same voice in the books to come.

Horrible narration by Virtual Voice!

Story was almost palatable, narration totally ruined the experience! From pronunciation errors to a mechanical, clipped vocal, this was horrible!

Good story, needed a human storyteller

I thought the story was interesting and complex enough to appeal to my imagination. But the AI narration made it hard to distinguish the two main characters and it fumbled some of the sentence structure. I probably won't choose another Audible with AI narration due to this experience.

Couldn't finish

I am sureit was a good book but the narrator sounded robotic. there was no real expression and emotion in her voice.

Mechanical Delivery

I’ve listened to several AI virtual voice books and don’t endorse it. Makes even good books dry. Story was better than good.

Good storyline

I enjoyed the storyline, however, I did not like the virtual narration. For me it ruined the experience of listening to the book.

my dislike of the AI.

I didn't like the AI performance. It didn't catch the nuances, it didn't show anger, happiness, or any emotion. At times it made the story hard to follow.
It seems to me that having a different voice for each character would be easier.

Computer Voice-over - BLAH!

I managed to listen to the full audio but it was a real challenge. Dry monotone voice-over takes all the nuance out of the story, which was well worth the listen. I’d listen to additional books by the author but ONLY if they are read by an actual person… which is a shame because this is a series (that I think I’d like) but I’m walking away from it. Keep up the great story lines, pay for a real reader OR voice it yourself, can’t possibly be any worse than the computer.

Virtual voice is terrible.

When all the characters have the same voice and inflection it's disturbing and distracting. I think I'll read this book instead.

The plot was good

This would be a lot better book if a human being read it. The virtual voice has a lot to be desired and was too monotoned