Nailed

The Alex Harris Mysteries, Book 8

By: Elaine Macko

Narrated by: Michelle Babb

Having secrets can sometimes get you nailed! Alex Harris thinks finding a place to celebrate her one-year anniversary sounds like a good idea, but when her husband arrests her sister for murder she has some serious thoughts about staying married to the guy!

Her sister Samantha is clearly keeping a secret and refuses to give the police an alibi, but when she asks Alex to help solve the crime and clear her name, Alex is only too happy to jump in and prove her husband wrong. And then the police turn their attention to Samantha's husband - another suspect with no alibi.

Could her sister or brother-in-law really have killed a local building inspector over his refusal to pass their new sunroom addition? Alex doesn't think so and sets her sights on several others who had more than a good reason to nail the guy. Something sinister is going on in this coastal New England town where the bodies seem to be piling up. Fans of Janet Evanovich and Cleo Coyle will love this series.

©2015 Elaine Macko (P)2016 Elaine Macko

A lively & intelligent cozy mystery

Alex Harris runs a small but successful temp agency in her home town of Indian Cove, Connecticut. Her sister, Samantha, works for her, and the small number of Alex's office employees are a tight-knit little family. Alex also has a close extended family, including not just her and Sam's husbands, and Sam's two children, but the sisters' parents and grandparents.

And then Alex's husband, Indian Cove police detective John Van der Burg, messes things up by showing up at Alex's office to arrest Sam for the murder of the building inspector who failed to pass the new sunroom addition to Sam's house.

Well, really, just take her in for questioning, because they have a witness saying that Sam had a loud confrontation with him the previous morning in which she may have threatened to kill him.

Alex and John are coming up on their one-year anniversary. After this outrage, she's not sure they'll make it. In fairness, it should perhaps be noted that even at the height of her outrage, she's not entirely serious about that last bit.

Sam refuses to give any kind of an alibi, which does make it harder for the police to drop her as a possible suspect, and of course Alex can't help but get involved in trying to find the real killer to clear first Sam, and then her husband, Michael, after it's clear Sam isn't a viable suspect. In the process, she learns a great deal not just about the dead inspector, but his family, his dead wife's family, the school both his and Sam's kids attend, and an impressive array of other people who may or may not be connected to his death, but in this small town, were definitely connected to him, one way or another.

It's a lively, interesting story, with unexpected bits of humor. I especially like the fact that the characters are well-developed and complex. We meet several characters who are definitely quite flawed and hard to like, yet prove to have some quite positive traits as well. Nor is it a simplistic, "see, everyone is nice after all." These are characters who are truly a realistic mix of the good and the bad.

Another thing I really like is that Alex, while by no means a professional investigator, doesn't do reckless or foolish things. That doesn't mean she never makes a mistake, but she doesn't do the things that make you want to scream at the page or the screen that doing that is insane and you're going to get yourself killed. She considers them sometimes, but she doesn't do them. I love that simple possession of common sense as well as intelligence.

Michelle Babb always enhances anything she narrates, which is why I rarely pass up an opportunity to review her audiobooks. Her voice is clear and easy on the ear, and she's both expressive, and good at distinguishing the characters.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

Light Beach Read - Family Centric Mystery

In this story, an unlikable character gets killed and nearly everyone is suspect. I love when authors can take a serious subject such as murder and present it with both the seriousness it deserves and with levity. Author Elaine Macko carries this out with finesse by injecting functional and dysfunction-- all very realistic-- relationship issues in to a rather fun reading/listening experience. Clever quips, quirky relationship toggles, and mutually nulling affects of pitting self-flagellation against self-justification, keep all the backstories bobbing in along with the progression of this "who done it. Macko keeps it a light and fun and packed with family interactions (there's even a pet), thus making a nice contribution to the genre.

Narrator Michelle Babb does a great job with both male and female voices. There is one comment: For all characters, she injects pauses into her flow of speech that seem incongruous to what I would consider the natural flow of speech. I get the impression Babb's broken cadence is an issue of deliberate style rather than an inadvertent flaw. Either way, I found it distracting and, by the time I finally got used to it, I had nearly reached the end of the book.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you Audiobook Boom.

Great story

I really loved this story. It had murder, mystery, and an all around good feel. The characters were well developed and narrator Michelle's Babb "nailed" it! she did a great job giving the characters their own identity. If she narrated a book I'm going to listen because I enjoy her style.

Nailed: The Alex Harris Mysteries, Book 8

Alex Harris is a cross between Nancy Drew and Lucy Ricardo(from I love Lucy). The mystery itself was fine but I found the seemingly endless list of suspects overdone. I would recommend this book to adolescent and teenage readers because I think a younger reader would appreciate the attempts at humor that just fell flat for me.

The narrator did a decent job with both male and female voices. I appreciate the fact that she wasn't over dramatic and that she didn't go overboard when trying to do a foreign accent.

I received a free copy of the audio-book version of this publication from the narrator, Michelle Babb in exchange for an honest review.

I'd prefer to READ this book!

This is book 8 in the Alex Harris mystery series and I haven't read the previous books. Book 8 is the first to become an audiobook and it also caused a great deal of wonder - why? But the plot was of interest to me, so I'd give it a try.

I didn't feel I missed anything in the story, but at some points I knew I'd be better off if I had started at book one. The story is well-plotted, well-written and the characters has a lot of personality. The author did a very fine job in creating this story and I'd also like to read the rest of series, but only read - NOT listen…

The narrator Michelle Babb disappointed me a lot. She was just reading the book without knowing what was coming. She wasn't at all prepared for the next scene and almost spelled out every word, like it was a good-night story for the kids. She paused many times, just to pick up the last word in a sentence. I was so annoyed, that it took me a long time to finish it, because I paused the book to pick it up again after another book.

Many reviews here are giving the narrator 4 and 5 stars and if I should buy this book based on these reviews, I'd be furious and would return it ASAP! I really hope this book will be re-recorded and another narrator would do the rest. This is really an insult to both the listener - AND the author as well, who has actually created a great story.

*This book was gifted to me in exchange for an HONEST review.