California Schemin'

California Schemin'

• Wednesday, 21 January 2015

 

California Schemin'

Written by: Kate George
Narrated by: Sara Mackie
Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
Series: A Bree MacGowan Mystery, Book 2
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:05-13-13
Publisher: Kate George
Audible.com

Publishers' Summary

She's on a killer vacation.
Finding one dead body is unlucky. Finding two means you're Bella Bree MacGowan.
Most people can relax by an idyllic riverside without fishing a dead body out of the water; Bree MacGowan is not most people. And as luck would have it, it's not just any old corpse she's tripped over this time. It's the late wife of Senator R. Carl Wallace, a paragon of upstanding American citizenship to anyone who looks...unless they look too closely. Which is, of course, exactly what Bree does, and what she finds is definitely more trouble than she bargained for.
Where power and murder collide, danger follows, and Bree soon finds herself the target of break-ins, vandalism, and kidnapping, all at the hands of the dubious Senator who insists that she identify two criminals she's never seen before as the people who killed his wife. Now Bree has to save herself and the ones she loves from a conspiracy where the bad guys look good, the good guys look bad, and nothing is as it seems....
©2011 Kate George

My Review

What would we do without the accidental detective? The ones who, whilst enjoying the most mundane of daily activities, always somehow manage to find a corpse! Not just a corpse you understand, but a murdered corpse. Bree though, finds hers in a slightly unusual manner. Whilst relaxing and enjoying herself taking a few photos, Bree focused her camera lens way up towards a high bridge, what is in her viewfinder? You've guessed, a body which comes hurtling through the air from on high and lands in the river almost at her feet! Just to make matters worse, along comes a bear and up a tree goes Bree.
This is how this story (and trouble) starts, Bree finds herself suspected as a witness to this womans' murder, albeit from a great distance.
Do not expect a well constructed whodunit as the story is a little disjointed, it contains some annoying inconsistencies and, for some odd reason, an ill fitting and rather pointless shape shifting FBI agent who, I would say, is more suited to a fantasy. The storyline is predictable, Bree is annoyingly hard headed and incapable of making reasoned decisions. Her boyfriend is not the brightest, for goodness sake, he didn't even realise he had been kidnapped!
The book had the feel of one that had been dashed off quite quickly, I felt it could have done with a darn good polishing before being released. The story is, though, saved by its farcical element and proved entertaining enough.

Narrator

The narrator, Sarah Mackie, did a good job with all characterisations, she has a pleasant, easy on the ear voice and I'd happily listen to her again.
Unfortunately, the sound quality was poor, with a slight echo, the consonants were uncomfortable to the ear. This is a shame, it is also a bit of a cheek to expect people to pay good money for second rate recordings.