Tear Down and Die

A Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery, Book 1

By: Joanna Campbell Slan

Narrated by: Em Eldridge

She began a journey of self-discovery. She never expected to uncover an old boyfriend and a dead body . . .

Stuart, Florida. With her parents deceased and her son away at college, Cara Mia Delgatto longs to reinvent herself. And a sentimental purchase of a fixer-upper in a small, coastal town seems ideal for a new business selling repurposed relics. But when she trips over a corpse at her rundown building, she flips from renovator to prime suspect.

Desperate to clear her name, it shocks Cara to discover that her property once housed a multi-million dollar art collection—stolen after the original owner's death. And when her first love shows up and tugs at her heartstrings, her whirlwind life upgrades to a hurricane. With accusations of murder and theft looming, she's running out of redos . . .

Can Cara crack the case and rebuild her reputation, or will her desire to upcycle treasures send her to jail?

©2016 Joanna Campbell Slan (P)2022 Tantor

Fun Cozy Mystery

It starts slowly, think turtles pace, it was necessary to set up the story, and introduce the characters. The story gets going about a third of the way through and ends up being a good start to a new series. The first part of the book could definitely benefited from additional editing. Overall, good book.

Recycling, a rescue & other surprises

Cara Mia Delgatto is wanting to make a new start in her life. Divorced from an abusive husband, she travels to Florida to visit her only son who’s attending college in Miami. Well in to her trip & almost to her destination, her car starts making funny noises so she decides to stop in a small coastal town where her grandfather lives & owns a garage & gas station. The story gets off to a rather slow start but begins to draw me in about midway through. That’s about when she & her coworkers are starting to cross the street & someone tosses a small dog out of their moving car. Being an animal lover, I had to find out what happens with the dog. Cara Mia has purchased a building near her grandfather’s garage & a couple of ladies she recently befriended are going in on selling mostly recycled items to tourists as well as new people moving in wanting to find items with that “old Florida” look. Cara had known the previous owner & thought she could restore the old business & settle there to help with her aging grandfather who was in failing health. The previous owner also had paintings by some local artists that were now valuable but had turned up missing. There’s also the murder of the real estate agent who accidentally sold Cara Mia the property & Cara & her grandfather were suspects. There are other twists & turns that one would expect in a cozy mystery but the ending still leaves some things to wonder about in the books to follow. I will say that I’m interested enough to try Book 2.

4 stars

I enjoyed the mystery but the story stalled in the middle and I skipped ahead a few times to get to the end. Hopefully the next book will be better.

I am a florida born girl.

I like the storyline you have to read to find the answers you thought were correct.

Cute story but terrible narrator

The story is your typical rom com and has enough cute characters and the plot line seems good but I couldnt even finish listening to it because the narrator is dreadful. From monotone to weird inflection. I had a really hard time listening and had to finish it by just reading it.