A Cache of Deceit

A Cozy Mystery of Stitched Clues and Silent Warnings

By: Alsie Hunter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A stitched map. A double trail. And a race against someone who’s always one step ahead.
When a cryptic letter and an inheritance notice bring pilot Jack Holt back to Maplewood Hollow after his great-aunt Edna’s death, he expects a keepsake—maybe a quilt, maybe a box of memories.
What he finds is a coded trail, a warning not to go it alone, and a treasure someone else is already chasing.

Joining forces with Magda Lane, antique expert and puzzle-savant, Jack follows Edna’s final mystery, one clue at a time: orchard roots, tampered compasses, invisible ink, and faces scratched from photos.

But they’re not the only ones on the trail.

Russell Corwin an archivist with too many answers.
A silk-scarfed stranger with far too much interest in Edna’s stitching.

Every clue tightens the thread. Every step pulls them deeper toward the truth, or toward whoever’s trying to twist it.

Because if Jack fails, Edna’s secret treasure might disappear for good.

The story had a lot of potential… A lot of charm likable characters.

I think having an actual human narrated, the story would have done a lot to provide clarity for the listener, and would have increased the potential charm and enjoyment of the story. The virtual narrator even read punctuation, marks out loud, and words sounded as if they were mispronounced.

Story is ok

Terrible computer voice recording. For some bizarre reason the computer voiced a lot of the books punctuation. Keeps interrupting with “dot”. At first I thought it was another character named Dot. 😲

The mysterious dot

I was distracted from the story buy the narrator saying “dot” after some sentences but not all. It took me a few seconds to realize he was saying dot to represent the period at the end of the sentence and not talking about a new character in a strange way.
I believe the story could be enhanced with better editing and not just letting Virtual Voice do its thing.
I also would have liked more character development of Magda and a little less of Jack.