A likeable amateur sleuth in an engaging cosy mystery!

As well as running a temp agency in the small coastal town of Indian Cove CT, Alex Harris likes to solve mysteries. When an unsavoury character is killed with a nail gun, her police officer-husband arrests Alex’s sister for the murder, and Alex declares her intention to divorce him and clear her sister. This is a competent cosy mystery told from Alex’s POV. Although this is book 8 in the series, it was my first book by Elaine Macko who made it easy to adjust to all the characters. Alex is a likeable amateur sleuth / soccer mom who is loyal to her friends and family, and tenacious in her pursuit of the truth. The murders were intriguing and the secretive brother-in-law subplot was engaging. Michelle Babb gives a strong audio performance with good pacing and emotion.

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Awesome thriller

I really loved the way the story progressed. It kept me engaged in the story all the time and never lost interest in it and always had the curiosity to know what happened next... The narration was excellent...

A lovely murder mystery...

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Nailed it!

This is a very well written cozy mystery that I enjoyed listening to until the very last minute. Alex Harris is a great character who knows what she wants and goes for it, solving murder mysteries. Plenty of suspects and intrigue with well described characters who all seem to have motive for killing the building Inspector. There is humour and suspense in abundance. A great listen Thankyou Elaine Macko. I look forward to reading more of her stories. Unfortunately this seems to be the only one of this series in audio at this time. Michelle Babb is a brilliant narrator who sounds to be really enjoying telling the story and she does a fantastic job of voicing all the characters in the book, both male and female. Once started I just had to finish the book, a real "page turner". As with the author I shall definitely be keeping a look out for more Cozy mysteries narrated by Michelle, she is definitely in my Top 10 of favourite narrators.

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A good mystery.

I quite enjoyed this tale. It was a very light read I usually prefer darker books but this kept me going because I wanted to know the end.

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Nailed!

Nailed by Eiaine Macko is a great standalone listen. This is my first book by the author and not my last. I enjoyed the twists in the story and found it to be original. Michelle Babb is magical bringing the characters to life with her voice. I enjoy how easy it is to hear the differences in characters and know exactly whom is speaking. She gives the right attitude and emotions to this listen.

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Absolutely brilliant

I just love a cozy crime story and even better narrated by Michelle Babb. I am going into this series at book 8 but it didnt really matter.

I just enjoyed it and made a car journey so much quicker.

I was given a free copy by the narrator but this is no way influenced my review.

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A very well written mystery highlighted by the great narration.

A very well written mystery highlighted by the great narration.

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy I received free from the author.

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So how did you figure it all out?

Although the eighth in the series, Nailed is the first Alex Harris mystery that this reader has read, and it completely succeeded as a stand alone. A man has been found dead and, to Alex Harris' horror, her sister is prime suspect. Even worse, it is Alex's own detective husband, John, who arrests her. since her sister refuses to say where she had been on the night the man, Victor, was murdered, Alex sets out to find the real killer whilst hubby John languishes in the spare room. This is a fun story with further angles beside the main investigation, with multiple suspects, red herrings and great characters, all well developed.

Part of the success of this Audiobook is down to the fine character narration of Michelle Babb, who really brings everyone to life with personalized voicings, and the closely nuanced adherence to the emotional content of the text. Never over the top in her de!ivery, Ms.Babb's liltingly accented voice conveys a total picture of people and situations as well as what is happening as the mystery unfolds. A fine performance.

This is a well tapestried cozy with believable protagonists and a good who-dun-it? mystery. Very enjoyable with clues along the way for audience participation. Recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

fabulous story

wow what a story tossing and turning leaving you with ideas of whom did what but in the end it all turned out good 👍

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Good mystery, and suitable intro to the series

Even though this is book 8 it was perfectly fine as my introduction to the series, as the books are self-contained stories but with the same characters present. At time of writing (7th September 2022) Nailed is the only one available on Audible and was described to me as a "cosy mystery". This is an accurate term, as despite the story revolving around a violent murder, the characters aren't in any rush to find the killer. There are scenes where the protagonist discusses the killing while eating biscuits and mentioning cake recipes every so often, and there is very little action. It's a bit like the show Murder She Wrote, and Nancy Drew is also name-dropped in this book, so it is a relaxing story to go through. There are a varied cast of characters, and the writing for them was enjoyable, with a number of humorous events as well. There is one good joke which gets setup early on and takes hours before the final punchline, and with this being a dialogue-driven story there can be a lot of emotional language but swearing is kept to a minimum. Even though a gruesome murder involving a nail gun brings everything together, you never get scenes or vivid descriptions of gore.

The protagonist is Alex Harris, co-owner of an employment agency, who happens to investigate mysteries on the side. Her husband is a police detective, and the story begins with him arresting Alex's sister at the agency due to her being present right near the murder site on the night it occurred, and is refusing to explain her reason for being there. Alex is thus determined to find the real killer and clear her sister's name. The story is told in the first person, and the only perspective we view is that of Alex

We constantly get her thoughts on the other characters and see that Alex has quite a number of quirks and flaws. It was good seeing how she views the world and those around her, and I was surprised by how judgemental of a person she could be. Considering she is a detective trying to discover the truth she can be very fast in making snap opinions. She refers to one lady as a dirty skank after hearing only one side of a story and without verifying if it is even true, and can be downright ruthless to her husband. Due to him arresting Alex's sister he gets mistreated quite badly. Alex constantly threatens him with divorce and is passive-aggressive and sarcastic to him, makes him sleep in another room, fantasises how much she'd enjoy seeing him "homeless and penniless", and plans on sabotaging the home's air conditioning during a deep summer so he could only feel discomfort when at home. It's unfortunate he gets treated like this as it's not like John, the husband, had a choice. It would be quite the damning scandal if he had to announce to his employer, or a court of law, that he declared his family members present at a murder site to be immune from all police questioning, but this is what Alex wants from him. I would have liked this more if we had more of John's viewpoint, or if it was more double-sided, as instead John is always calm, talks only a little, and just takes everything Alex throws at him without complaint. Seeing more internal family drama would have been great, but it is only ever Alex who attacks, and John who just accepts it. She even refuses to refer to John by name, instead just "Detective".
(Very minor spoiler) (view spoiler)

The book goes quite deep during Alex's discussions with the rest of the cast. The murder isn't the only incident that happened, and events span back several years in uncovering the whole story. There is a lot of interesting moments and sad backstories, and one thing in particular that was great is that you, the reader, can discover the truth yourself. There are badly written who-dun-its where the killer is someone who only appears at the very end, so you never get the chance to figure out the mystery. Here you are able to uncover the answer before the reveal, so it does reward you in joining Alex's journey. It can be good with Alex being essentially a murder mystery hobbyist as it's shown she does not have all the answers. Eventually by the end she does, but she needs help, and it means the reader can acquire the satisfaction of being a better sleuth than the hero themselves.

One thing I didn't like was some of the character introduction writing felt clunky. 30 seconds into the book we get the line "John Vanderburg, lead detective of the Indian Cove Police Department, and my husband". It would have been better if John was revealed as the police detective during the sister arrest scene. This same method of introducing characters appears several times, but it gets a lot better as Alex speaks to characters she has never met before, and thus their identities are given to us in a more natural way.
Alex was also too casual at rare crucial moments. There is one section where she has good reason to believe a character could be in danger, so she decides to send her husband a voicemail and hope for the best. She at no point attempts to dial an emergency number (even though earlier in the book this is deemed an option), and just assumes her husband will see the voicemail before someone potentially gets into trouble. I quite liked the cosy mystery vibe for most of the story, but it should have demanded something more urgent than voicemail.

The supporting cast of characters were a good and varied lot, and their wide array of emotions are portrayed excellently by the narrator, Michelle Babb. There are no supporting sound effects or music, so the entirety of this audiobook relies on Michelle's performance. I could easily tell who the characters were by how the accents and voices distinctly change, and the audio quality was great in its whole duration. There is a wide mixture of characters of various ages, lifestyles, and sexes, and they all come across really well.

In the end it was good for someone like me who is rather unfamiliar with the reading/listening of cosy stories. Most of my library is dark fantasy, Warhammer, and horror, but I had no problems having fun with this. It took me two sessions to finish, and I found Alex's journey an enjoyable one.


Disclaimer: the book was given to me as part of its promotion. I am under no obligation to write any review, nor was it requested of me. I had never heard of these books before, but enjoyed the sample here on Audible, so I requested if could have a copy (which they kindly gave me).

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