Shattered

Logan, Book 1

By: Valerie Davisson

Narrated by: Leonor A. Woodworth

Meet Logan McKenna...fiercely loyal, and impossibly inquisitive.

In Shattered, the first book in the original mystery series and stunning fiction debut with which Valerie Davisson lets us crave for more, Logan McKenna loses her husband, her illusions, the company they built together, her music, and now, probably her job. But that won't stop her from digging into a murder investigation that keeps Southern California's tight-knit artist community on its toes and law enforcement cluelessly guessing.

At loose ends, and running out of money after buying a fixer upper on the coast, she decides to help out her best friend from high school, Thomas, a Native American artist, and his wife Lisa at their booth at the Otter Arts Festival, in the idyllic coastal town of Jasper, where she and her police officer brother Rick grew up. When one of the talented, young artists is found gruesomely murdered at the festival, Logan is faced with the reality that her best friend not only lied to her, but may be guilty of murder. It's up to her to find out what really happened that night, before the murderer kills again.

If you enjoy listening to Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon, James Patterson's Murder Club, J. A. Jance's Joanna Brady, or more general: a mystery novel with a strong female character, you will quickly fall in love with Valerie Davisson's Logan McKenna - guaranteed!

©2014 Valerie Davisson (P)2016 Valerie Davisson

4

4/5 Shattered by Valerie Davisson
Narrated by Leonor A Woodworth
Runtime: 7 hrs and 1 min
Summary:
Sort of an odd cozy mystery that bounces around past and present.

Additional Comments:
• super slow beginning. I almost forgot that part because I heard the first hour then put the book aside for about 2 months.
• Narrator fit the main character well. She has a really nice voice but not a huge range.
• Some character leaps of logic are bizarre.
• It’s hard to like or pity the murder victim. She’s kind of a prickly jerk.
• Thomas and Lisa are saints. I am surprised at their lack of reaction to one of the major plot points.
• I liked Rick but always had to remind myself who he is. Same for Ben. Lola. And Dime Box. The chess lady. The waitress. They are great characters… there is just a lot of them.
• Conclusion is somewhat satisfying, but Logan’s main problem for school got sorted like a fairy godmother came rampaging through.
• I did not get the feeling of authentic school drama. Oh, schools are hotbeds of nonsensical problems but I don’t see them investigating good test scores. And I don’t see perfect test scores happening no matter how good the teacher is. There is always a few kids who couldn’t care less.
Conclusion:
If u can wade through the poor pacing, there is a good story here.
*I received a free copy of the audiobook. I have chosen to review it. All thoughts are my own.

Interesting Setting for Cozy Mystery

I'm going to do my best to write this without spoilers because many of the reviews have spoilers and it's hard to get a good sense of a book before you read it if you can't read the review. 🙂

What I had the hardest time with was understanding what type of book this was supposed to be. In the end, I think it seems like a cozy mystery, but that was not what I thought going in. Adjusting my expectations was helpful.

I struggled with some of the language. It was published in 2014, so the use of the term Indian rather than First Nations or other accepted terms was kind of startling.

The narrator did well overall. Sometimes the point of view changed between 2 different female characters, and I think it would have been helpful if she had changed the voices a little bit more to make those POV changes a little more clear.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

Good Story

Would you consider the audio edition of Shattered to be better than the print version?

The print version would probably have been better because I kept finding myself tuning out the story.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not really

Have you listened to any of Leonor A. Woodworth’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I don't know if it was the story line or the performance but this story was hard to stay focused on.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

great story !

Loved the whole thing ... narrator was great and story line was excellent. made for a perfect listen.

Good

Good story of how Logan when she has lost almost everything. Yet when a friend is accused of murder, and doesnt defend himself.She delves in to learning glass making to help find answers. A good beginning to the series. Narration which was good and added to the story. Given audio for my voluntary review

Intriguing & Compelling Mystery!

Shattered has a really good plot and story line that is very intriguing with some added drama. The art show & scenery are extremely well depicted and descriptive in a way that makes one feel as if they are there. You are able to picture everything in your minds' eye. The story itself is very well written and I was kept engaged always wanting more and wanting to what would happen next. The characters are well defined and developed with excellent relationship development between characters. The author writes the characters in such a way that enables you to develop a relationship with each. The story builds from page one and is fast paced, never leaving the reader/listener the opportunity to lose interest. It grabs your attention and maintains it until the very end. This book is definitely a page turner as I was unable to stop listening and completed the story in one day. I enjoyed this book and am excited to listen to book two.

The narrator, Leona Woodworth, did an excellent job narrating this book. She has excellent pace, voice inflection and timing. She applies the appropriate amount of emotion when required and portrays the characters brilliantly. Her narration grasps your attention from the beginning and holds it until the very end.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com

Confused

I really wanted to like this book, but in the end I found it very confusing.

Lost in mundane information, I found the story jumped around. Characters seem to pop up out of no where with little or no background and in the end were to play a significant roll in the plot. I felt the book almost started mid-point then worked backwards and jumped ahead to the end with a lot of words but no continuity.

Logan, the main character lost her husband, their business and is now starting over in an artsy community. We drop in on the story with a letter she received about her teaching which makes you think it is going to be the focus of the book but it's not.

For the summer Logan goes to work at a local festival and revives her love of music and is fascinated by the glassblowing. Her relationships through the book add to the confusion. There is no real character building of Logan which I found disappointing.

Colorful characters are dotted through the story that don't necessarily have anything to do with the plot, chess players, locals, neighbors, festival workers and yet there is no real build up of the character who commits the crime, except as a religious nut who loves to do for others and at the same time is sick of doing good.

The narration is okay. Leonor A Woodworth narration of Logan and the male characters are very good but the other female character voices are sometimes grating.

“This audiobook was given by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”

A good start

I really liked the main character and found the mystery got in the way of her story. I guess this is not a great thing, but I did enjoy this book. The characterization was very good although the backstories of some characters seemed forced. The relationships between characters felt realistic for the most part. The story itself was okay - the mystery stalled out several times and I had to really refocus to get back into it. I look forward to reading or listening to more from this author as I think the series will get much better with more.
The performance was very good. The pace was great and the reading was pleasing to listen to.
I was provided this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Nice story

This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom

Slice-of-life

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

This is the first "Cozy Mystery" I tried, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It feels more like the anime-equivalent of slice-of-life (not sure what the american term is). We don't even know there is a mystery until 40% of the book is through. The story focuses more on our protagonist Logan as we watch her live past her husband. We didn't really watch her grow, though. I thought we'd watch a depressed woman slowly socialize and pick up hobbies, but all of that is done before the book begins, so the character didn't really grow.

I've always disliked chess references, so that didn't reflect well on me. Luckily it was only a minor subplot and isn't related to the mystery or the book's themes. The story switches between different characters primarily to tell their back story. I really didn't like that. We could have learned their backstories through our protagonist instead. On the same topic, I don't like how the culprit is revealed via the culprit's perspective. I think it would have been better with that chapter removed, or at least moved until the end.

Narrator did ok but didn't really stand out from other narrators. I'll give her 3.5/5