Category: Female Narrator

Sometimes, you just want to listen to a woman’s voice.

The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush read by Sophie Amoss

From the very first paragraph, when she almost breaks her tooth on something hard that her mouth found in her peanut butter cupcake, Emily is interesting. Yes, she says yes to an engagement ring. But this is not another goofy romance in which the female not only saves the universe but also spends a lot of time thinking and talking about her lust for various male bodily bits.

Emily is a physician, a surgeon, and the estranged daughter of a medical examiner in a small town. She goes home to see after her father after his heart attack and becomes involved in a murder investigation… with her old boyfriend from highschool.  A good mystery – hopefully the first of a series.

 

Second to None by Nancy Herkness read by Megan Tusing

Ignore the cover photo.  An interesting story about a woman who bartends at an upscale New York club and an old college friend-become-billionaire who meet and reconnect — after a long time. The woman loves children, dogs, and has lots of student loans to pay back. The man is still trying to win over disappointed, wealthy parents, despite his many achievements.  Well written, entertaining, relevant.

Lea Wait, Thread and Gone read by Christina Delaine

Stitched into textiles by young girls in the early 19th century, some terribly bored,  are poems.  These needlepointed poems are featured as epigraphs in  another “cozy” mystery about a woman who returns to Maine.  Life in a small town in Maine is mostly monotonous and cold.  It is also cumulative. For some, local accumulations are the stuff of identity; for others they are the stuff of profit. For Lea Wait  they are the stuff of mystery.

Lane by Peter Grainger read by Henrietta Meire

Grainger has a way of ‘teasing out’ the most annoying characteristics of altogether too familiar personality types (aka ‘too old intransigent & traditional to live’, ‘career girl with delayed children’, ‘bureaucratic ox’, ‘resentful government serf’, ‘the thug who will not die’, ‘the devotedly inattentive son’…) and presenting them in living glory under a perfectly charming Cornish sun.

As in the Charlie Gallagher books where threats to family are used to manipulate police and criminals alike, Lane tells the story of a detective’s oldish mother, some thugs who want to punish her, and the inscrutable neighbor that comes for a visit just as trouble begins.

This is not so much about Cops and Their Mothers but rather about Two Women of Different Ages, and what they become when confronted by an odd and evil circumstance…

 

A Secret Wish by Barbara Freethy narrated by Amy Rubinate

Three women who are discontent present the traditional female problems, but unhinge these problems  in different ways.

One woman whines about  her husband not wanting to pay for yet another IVF treatment; another woman whines about her unfaithful husband; another whines about being alone.

But by the end of this story, none of these women are whining. Something happens.

 

The Social Climber of Davenport Heights by Pamela Morsi read by Isabelle Gordon

A conspicuously intelligent society wife with perfect manners and an unfaithful husband is driving home from the country club and her BMW is hit by a huge truck. Stuck inside the car,  she  promises the Gods to do good, if only she does not go up in flames. She does not. Jane is saved by an elderly man with a knife from a nearby nursing home, and she keeps her promise. Suddenly, everything changes… Or maybe just Jane changes.

A sweet, engaging, well plotted, well told tale about how a woman can use her good sense and good appetites to do good. Enchantingly read by Isabelle Gordon.