Bells, Tails & Murder

By: Kathy Manos Penn

Narrated by: Alex Picard

She crossed an ocean to start her life over. Can she nab a killer before her quaint village becomes a graveyard?



Recently widowed Leta Parker desperately needs a change of scenery. Pursuing her lifelong dream of retiring to the Cotswolds, she leaves her soulless corporate hustle in Atlanta and moves to England with her talking dog and cat companions—Dickens and Christie. But she's barely begun making new friends when she stumbles across her housekeeper's body . . .



With several villagers pegged for the crime, Leta teams up with a retired English teacher and her sharp-as-a-tack octogenarian mother to track the killer before the trail goes cold. As the not-so-friendly local policewoman elbows them out and scandalous rumors plague the tight-knit community, it's left to the ladies and their pets to sleuth for the truth.



Can Leta, Dickens, and Christie sniff out the culprit before the cute little town loses more than its charm?



Bells, Tails & Murder is the delightful first book in the Dickens & Christie Mystery series. If you like spunky literary women, amusing animal sidekicks, and inviting cultural backdrops, then you'll love Kathy Manos Penn's engaging cozy mysteries.©2020 Kathy Manos Penn and Manos Penn & Ink

Entertaining cozy mystery

Bells, Tails & Murder is book #1 in the Dickens & Christie Mystery series by Kathy Manos Penn. The audiobook is narrated by Alex Picard.

Leta Parker is a recent widow who retired in Atlanta, Georgia and moved to the Cotswolds in England with her cat, Christie, and dog, Dickens. Leta has the ability to understand animals which she keeps a secret. Christie is a bitty sassy which is what I would think my cats would sound like. Dickens is a sweetheart. The characters are likable and well-developed. The murder mystery was interesting and I enjoyed the wrap-up. I loved the storyline about the old books and letters.

Alex Picard did a great job narrating. It was easy to identify the various characters.

Thank you to the author, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for the offer of an Advanced Listener Copy (ALC) copy of this book. I failed to download it before it was archived but I was so interested in it that I purchased a copy on release day. This is my honest review.