Okay Performance of a Good Story

If you're up for comedy mystery, this is your book!

You MUST have a sense of humor if you plan to dive into a Memphis-based mystery in which the main character, Harley Jean Davidson, yes, she is named after a motorcycle, has an Elvis-impersonating father named Yogi, a mom, named Diva, who talks to spirit guides and the family dog, King (named after the King of Rock and Roll) is nabbed.

This is simply a fun, purely entertaining read - light, easy to put down and pick up again if you have small bits of time to read or are interrupted often.

I volunteered to listen to this book when the main narrator offered it on Goodreads with no review necessary. I was surprised that a review was not being asked, but I now understand. Getting the book "out there" is the hard part because once it is begun, you don't want to not finish the book(even if you find it a fairly predictable conclusion). There is plenty of entertainment to keep your interest to the end.

I have a great preference for audiobooks as I find narrators add so much more to a story than my internal reading voice. Not only do narrators read all of the words (you laugh, but I am sure I am not alone, when I am carried by a story, to find that I skim to get to the highlight of scenes), but experienced narrators capture the appropriate tone in their voice as well as the correct accent called for by the author. My inner reading voice doesn't do accents well, and tags for the verbal tone of a character often come after the dialogue. It is not overly helpful to read the dialogue, and then read that the words were spoken with laughter or with tears or in a whisper or with a shakey voice. Good narrators and good preparation, though, allow for the dialogue to be spoken with the intended emotion. Furthermore, I enjoy multiple narrators when the author writes their story with multiple points of view, though, good narrators can read more than one POV well, even when the POVs include both genders.

In this case, I am moved by the story to post this review, though not particularly moved by the narrators' performance to seek the next books in audio form. I recommend this book, but have caution to communicate about the audiobook form.

The book is told from one POV, Harley Jean, read by Karen Commins. When the story comes to male dialogue, Drew Commins, Karen's husband, speaks the dialogue rather than Karen. His narration seemed forced and stilted. I believe Karen should have been the sole narrator as the book is written in one POV -- the male voice for male dialogue was not seamless, but actually a bit of a distraction as it did not sound as natural as the lead narrator.

2 people found this helpful

Revving up with Harley

Hound dog Blues
Who but a hippy, bike lovin' Elvis fan would name his girl child Harley Jean Davidson?
Well, that would be daddy, Yogi, now Yogi also has a dog, King, he loves this dog and feels a great spiritual attachment to him. The dog doesn't care much about all that stuff, as time after time he gets loose and causes chaos in the neighbourhood.

Harley, now a tour guide, gets the call. Find King. A simple enough request you may think, but wait! There's more ....... King hasn't simply gone missing, he has been dog napped! There's even a ransom note, very odd, thinks Harley, as everyone know Yogi and Diva barely make a living selling hippy stuff.
Harley immediately has a suspect in mind, Mrs. Trimble. King had taken to visiting her in the past, and they had developed a very unfortunate relationship. Mrs. Trimble also had no love for Yogi either, and so begins Harleys' outrageous adventure!
There is a body, there are missing jewels, and there is a missing Yogi and Diva who have now become prime suspects in a dreadful crime. It's all left to Harley to put right.

Meanwhile she gets her fashion advice from her coworker Tootsie, who also works part time as a drag artist, he knows everything a girl would want to know about hair and make up. She annoys the heck out of certain officers of the law, takes advantage of friends' homes ... and eats a lot of bean burritos.
This story takes the reader on a rollicking adventure with Harley, naturally, she solves the mysteries providing us with plenty of fun along the way. I enjoyed the characters and I'm hoping to get to know them better. I also enjoyed my visit to Memphis.

Narrator

I must admit, I was a bit concerned, as this book has both a male and female narrators, Karen Commins and Drew Commins. Following a few less than satisfactory experiences I wouldn't normally choose to listen to a book with more than one narrator, I knew Karen would be good, she's always good, but what about this Drew fella? Well, actually he too is very good, excellent distinct characterisation, no overacting, good timing, pleasant listening.
However, there is a big difference in the listening experience when there is more than one narrator, and I'm still not sure I care for it. There always the feeling that one of them is speaking from another room, or as if we are listening to them on speakerphone, and, for some reason, it's always the male voice. I've noticed this on all my audiobooks that have more than one narrator.
I think it's just a matter of preference though, I do know other listeners love to hear both male and female readers, so, maybe I should just get over it!

2 people found this helpful

3.45/5 Stars

3.45/5 Stars Hounddog Blues by Virginia Brown
Narrated by Karen Commins, Drew Commins
Run Time: 8 hrs 38 mins
Summary:
A dog gets dognapped, and Harley Jean Davidson sets out to find him. Her parents sort of flee the law for a while until things cool down. The Main Character inserts herself into an investigation in a bid to get the Crime Stoppers reward money.

Additional Comments:
- Narration 3.5/5 stars: This could have been handled by Karen Commins alone. The edits were decently done, but she seemed to have a better range of voices. I couldn’t tell most of the male characters from one another, especially at the end.
- Content Warning: It was mostly a clean book, except for some curses, until the end when in a bid for humor the action turned very crude. And then the end scene. It was handled well enough not to be filed with steamy, but it probably kicks it out of cozy.
- I wouldn’t really qualify it as a cozy mystery at all. Maybe amateur sleuth and female amateur detective, but not cozy. Don’t think I’d qualify it as a comedy either. There are slapstick things that happen, but it didn’t strike me as particularly humorous.
- I feel like the character’s one of dozens I’ve read already. Kinda down on her luck, out to prove somebody innocent, the normal one in a pack of weirdos, etc.
- There are colorful characters around the MC. The cross-dressing tech support guy is probably my favorite of the bunch. Kamy (sorry, I heard the audio, so I have no idea on spelling)
- It’s not much of a romance or much of a mystery. She just sort of bumbles around until the answers leap out and smack her.
- The title and cover are very misleading. It starts with the dog, but it doesn’t focus on that long.
- The MC’s relationship with her folks is odd. She refers to them as Yogi and Diva. I think that’s a reference to the author’s main series. Her brother is useless. Literally and figuratively. Waste of page space. I think his only function is to prove the MC’s not herself a complete waste of space.

Conclusion:
It’s okay. Not sure I’d seek out another book about this character, but it kept me occupied for the 5 ish hours it took to listen.
*I picked it up on a free code site. This is my honest opinion.

So, So, Bad

I bought the first two in the series today (for cash, not credits) b/c I liked the idea -- I love Memphis, dogs, and Elvis, so what's not to like? Wrong! These are going back right away, and I only listened to about two chapters of one book. The narrator's relationship with her parents is not credible; the depiction of her parents as feckless, helpless, inconsistent old hippies is intensely irritating (to this old hippie anyway).

Cozy Little Mystery

Harley Jean Davidson is not your normal daughter of middle aged hippies because she knows how to solve a mystery. Harley's first mystery is to find the person who kidnapped her father's dog King but that leads to her finding a dead body. Harley unwittingly gets mixed up in murder, insurance theft, jewelry theft and a hot young policeman. This book encompasses from dog napping, murder, theft, comedy and a cast of quirky characters especially a Harley Davidson riding woman named you guessed it Harley Davidson. I loved the quirky characters and the very intricate storyline that has more angles than a rubik's cube. I loved both narrator's Drew and Karen Commins and their awesome voices they really do bring the book justice. I highly recommend this book if you love different cozy mysteries.
I received this book from Audiobooks Unleashed and this is my honest unbiased review.

At the wrong place at the wrong time

You know people that want to work harder on solving a police case than the police, then you’ve meet Harley. Several people aren’t happy with her interference. Now she’s brought her girl friend into the case when trouble increased. Between noisy neighbors and undercover police, Harley gets herself into trouble. But in the end, she wins.

Love this series!

Great mystery and I love the characters and the series! Works well as a stand-alone

I received a free copy and left my honest review

Great characters

This book had great characters. Harley riding Harley Jean Davidson, a tour guide in the land of Elvis is the daughter of aging hippies Yogi, an Elvis impersonator, and Diva who talks to spirits guides. Their dog King, named of course for Elvis, is kidnapped and they ask Harley to find him. Enter the cranky neighbor lady who hates King and Yogi, the creepy but hunky guy who just moved in next door who might be a jewel thief, the detective Harley has history with, and of course a dead body discovered by none other than Harley Jean. The mystery wasn't the deepest or most intriguing, as is typical of a cozy mystery, but the great characters and comedy made up for it. Promising beginning to a series. I wasn't really fond of the narration. It sounded like someone reading a book, not becoming that character. Harley Jean deserves better.

Great new series

Loved the start to this series. I really enjoy this author and narrator from a previous series and hope to review each book in this series. Loved the twist on a woman slueth that rides a motorcycle and, of course, is southern! This book was really hard to put down so I finished it pretty quickly. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good start, looking forward to more

This was cute. Took a bit to get into, and I almost quit because it felt a little dusty at first, but it may have been my mood at the start. I am glad I stuck with it.

The narrator does an interesting voice for the main male character—I really like it—and some funny side character voices that reminded me of Blanche from Golden Girls, and Gomer Pyle from Andy Griffith.

I received a free copy of this.