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Fresh Brewed Murder

Ground Rules Mystery Series, Book 1

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About this listen

Master barista Sage Caplin is opening a new coffee cart in Portland, Oregon, but a killer is brewing up a world of trouble....

Portland is famous for its rain, hipsters, craft beers...and coffee. Sage Caplin has high hopes for her coffee cart, Ground Rules, which she runs with her business partner, Harley - a genius at roasting beans and devising new blends. That's essential in a city where locals have intensely strong opinions about cappuccino versus macchiato - especially in the case of one of Sage's very first customers....

Sage finds the man's body in front of her cart, a fatal slash across his neck. There's been plenty of anger in the air, from longtime vendors annoyed at Ground Rules taking a coveted spot in the food truck lot, to protesters demonstrating against a new high-rise. But who was mad enough to commit murder? Sage is already fending off trouble in the form of her estranged, con artist mother, who's trying to trickle back into her life. But when Sage's very own box cutter is discovered to be the murder weapon, she needs to focus on finding the killer fast - before her business, and her life, come to a bitter end . . .

©2021 Kelly Garrett (P)2021 Tantor Amateur Sleuths Cosy Culinary Adventures Detective Fiction Mystery Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Murder
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This is an enjoyable murder mystery. I think I doubled my coffee intake while listening to this book though I realise I’m not as much of a coffee snob as I thought!

Enjoyable

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Really good book , I found this book easy listening And fun .

I recommend it for anyone wanting something easy to follow

Loved it

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I felt it was a tad coffee snobby in its story and although the characters appeared to have great back stories I was unable to have any feelings for them as they lacked substance and feeling. The narration was annoying as the detective and father were fine with this awfully slow Mr Smith voice. I just felt myself really not liking the main character as she had an air of city coffee cycling snobbery about her. She came over as a tad sickly perfect as if she was superior in everything. The practical side of coffee making was mentioned but again it was all about name dropping rather than feeling the author had ever actually got their hands dirty.

Story was ok but need to Like coffee

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I found the narrator’s voice and narrating style very pleasant and easy to listen too.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and didn’t see the outcome coming. (Granted, I conbined listening with doing chores).

Loved it!

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For me, this had all the ingredients to make a great "light listen" (Is that the equivalent of a "light read"?) in the evenings. The coffee theme crops up all over the book, combined with a cosy murder mystery, what could go wrong?

Unfortunately several things did go wrong. The characters are a bit of a jumble. We get a cluster of 1-dimensional characters. And I would suggest that instead of racing ahead and cramming in yet another coffee reference, the author could have lingered more on character descriptions and background, ensuring each character was living and breathing in our minds.

The story itself is not as strong as it could have been, with plot twists happening too late. And you're left thinking "Really? We're learning that now?". The plot could have been less complex, stripped back a bit, quality over quantity.

Finally, the quality of the recording was bad. Listening to this on an Amazon Echo Show, it's clear that a little more compression would have smoothed out the dynamic better (but instead we get loud passages spoken next to barely audible mumblings). And we needed a little more EQ in the upper mid range to make the recording more intelligible,

I wanted to like this book, but ...

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