Fudge-Laced Felonies

Christian cozy mystery

By: Cynthia Hickey

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A hidden stash of diamonds, cash, and a bloody glove turns Summer Meadows’ Sunday gardening into a deadly game of small-town secrets.

When Summer Meadows, a spirited Southern amateur sleuth, agrees to help her church replant a rosebush, she never expects to dig up a mystery. Instead of roots and soil, she and handsome church greeter Ethan Banning uncover a stash of hidden diamonds, a rusty can full of cash, and a bloody gardening glove—a discovery that shocks their small-town congregation.

With her candy-making aunt by her side, Summer sets out to unravel the tangled web of stolen jewels, buried secrets, and dangerous lies. But the closer she gets to exposing the diamond thief, the more peril she faces—especially when someone desperate to protect the truth will stop at nothing to silence her.

Packed with twists, romance, and Southern charm, this cozy mystery delivers heart-pounding suspense wrapped in small-town humor. Perfect for fans of clean mysteries with romance, quirky heroines, and faith-infused sleuthing.

Disappointing

It started off with a cute story, a great potential storyline and likable character but quickly devolved into an utterly ridiculous mess. The heroine’s character took on a dumb, bumbling girl who pretty much stumbled into every conceivable way to be killed and not through any mental deduction but purely happenstance survived again and again only to plunge headlong into the same fate. Sadly she is portrayed as a completely irrational, self absorbed person. It was a missed opportunity to highlight smart, Christian women who put others first and who understand what real faith is and can actually think for themselves. I don’t understand why mystery novels can’t be intelligent and clean in the same cover instead of one or the other.

The AI voice narration was horrible. Missed pronounced words, awkward pauses, flat and weird intonations that changed the dynamic of the story. Aside from taking jobs away from great narrators AI is ruining audio books.