Be transported to the Garden Island

Lets mix up some mystery and fun and music and a beautiful island and you have a tasty meal for your ears with a good performance by the Narrator. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review

2 people found this helpful

Take a Trip to Hawaii

In <strong>Ukulele Murder</strong> by Leslie Langtry, Nani Johnson has moved to Aloha Lagoon, Kauai from Kansas to play her ukelele, which she studied at Juilliard. After playing for a bar mitzvah, Nani goes to a concert of the top ukulele musician on the island, Alohalani, where she runs into the two other native ukelele musicians, Kua and Leilani, both of whom are antagonistic towards Nani for not being native Hawaiian and, if truth be told, for being a better musician than they are. After an argument with Kua, Nani goes to sit in front and then leaves as soon as the concert is over. But not long after arriving at home, Nani gets visited by a police officer. Detective Ray informs her that Kua has been murdered, bludgeoned over the head, and Leilani claimed that Kua left the building with Nani in a heated argument. Unable to provide an alibi, Nani gets nervous, but Detective Ray doesn't arrest her. . . yet. The next day the officer returns with news that Kua was bludgeoned with kwila wood, a very hard native tree, a type of wood that Nani had a special ukelele made from. What is worse, that ukelele has gone missing. Now Nani is a genuine suspect. With the help of her best friend, Binny, and the blind date her mom set her up with, Nick Woodfield, Nani has to stand up for herself in investigating things before she gets arrested. Or killed. Things becomes even scarier when more people get murdered, each in a different manner. And each murder is enacted to frame Nani. I earlier enjoyed listening to Langtry's first four Merry Wrath books, so I was excited to see that <em>Ukelele Murder</strong> has recently been released on audio. I was most definitely not disappointed. The plot kept me drawn into the story, with its creative side trips and clever details. The path that Nani travels in her search for the truth takes us through some interesting plot points. However, as much as I enjoyed the plot, it is the characters who truly bring this book to life. Nani was a believable, likable character with whom we can completely identify and really want to see succeed in her life and in her ability to find the real murderer in order to stay out of prison. Binny serves as the perfect best friend, and we come to like Nick, though we understand Binny's concern over Nick's over- eagerness and find ourselves wondering about his motives. But the most lively character is Nani's alcoholic, borderline mental case of a mother. The woman lives to her own drum and decorates the living room with random objects found on the island, so Nani never knows whether she'll walk in to find coconuts or hula girls filling her living room. But further, the island life itself serves as another character in the story. We see views of the island and images of life there, from the music to the surfing and everything in between. Susan Marlowe performs the audio edition of this book, with a strong alto voice that adds to the sense of music behind the book. She uses good voices for the various characters, both the women and men characters. The expression she uses adds to the humor that the book already contains. Marlowe effectively helps the book take us to Kauai and enjoy the experience oft1 listening to the ukelele. Pp I really enjoyed listening to <strong>Ukulele Murder</strong>. The story was full of fun, but the characters took it to a higher level of delight. The book gave me a strong picture of Kauai and made me interested in the ukulele as an instrument. I give it five stars!

2 people found this helpful

Pretty dumb but a bit of interesting characters

The characters were the most interesting thing about the story, but from the beginning it was too easy to identify the evil person and then so much was repeated over and over and over- oh, the angst! Wait a minute, actually, the very most interesting part of the drama was about the ukuleles. That was good.

Great mystery

Great mystery and I love this series. Each is a great standalone I received a free copy and left my honest review

A fun listen in a murder mystery

This was an enjoyable listen! I like quick fun mysteries, nothing so serious it gets depressing. This is that kind of book. The characters are fun, and following their 'we don't need the police, we'll solve this ourselves' logic is an enjoyable ride. You have to be able to suspend some belief in some logic, as the characters here, as they do in many of these types of books, have a 'sure, someone's trying to kill me, but I'll withhold information from the police and try to solve it myself' theme going, but overall a fun listen, and enjoyable characters.

A delightful cosy mystery

Finally, I’ve gotten back into my audiobook groove again, and as my first book back, I chose Ukulele Murder by Leslie Langtry; which marks my first cosy mystery from this author … I was not disappointed. Set in the fictional township of Aloha Lagoon, Hawaii, Ukulele Murder provided a wonderful, tropical escape from the rapidly declining temperatures. The way that the author described the beauty and sense of community of the Hawaiian Islands sounded perfectly ideal. As a listener/reader, I could imagine what the area looked like as I read. Furthermore, what helped enhance the community, was the cast of characters who all came across as believable and realistic. It was easy to relate to the characters and feel various emotions regarding them as the story progressed (ie. my frustration with Nani's mum). In terms of the actual mystery, I was easily able to guess the outcome. However, despite this, I found myself binge-listening to this story; enjoying the twists and turns on the way to the resolution. Finally, in regards to narration, I believe that Susan Marlowe did a splendid job telling the story. Although, I did notice that she pronounced words that included a 't' a bit oddly which I found slightly jarring - but that is only a minor nitpick really. Overall, Ukulele Murder was a delightful cosy mystery to get me back into the swing of things. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to other fans of the genre. My only regret is that the rest of the series isn't on Audible yet. Please note that this book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review

Fun listen

I found this audiobook to be a fun listen. It has a great combination of murder, mystery, suspense and humor. The narrator does a wonderful job of reading each character.

Thoroughly enjoyed

Received bonus code for honest review. Narrator was excellent. Story had twists as characters developed.

Amazingly funny

I am a huge fan of Ms. Langtry. I think her Merry Wrath Mysteries are rolling on the floor, laugh out loud hilarious. This is the first in a series written by different authors. Set in the fictional township of Aloha Lagoon, Hawaii, Ukulele Murder is a little over the top but a great escape. It was fast and furious. I listened to this over the course of a few days as I ran errands.

Fun with too many glottal stops

I’m a ukulele player so this was fun though I guessed the killer halfway through. The narrator’s glottal stops though drove me nuts: bo’ul for bottle,for example. The lack of ts and ds mid word rampaged through the book.in what might otherwise have been a fine narration.