fun cozy, with interesting characters. to be read for phun, as a palate- or brain-cleanser ( )

Charlie Gibson kills a man in self defense who ends up being the brother of a very vengeful mobster, and when she finds a severed finger on her doorstep, she decides it's time to get out of Dodge, fast! The only place she can go, seeing as how she has no money, is Hawaii, where she spent her childhood and where her mother still lives. I mean, there are definitely worse places to go!

I thought this was a very fun book. The premise is far fetched, to say the least, but if you could look past that, it was a good read. I loved that the main characters were all strong, independent women, other than Charlie's mother, who just couldn't seem to talk about anything other than her daughter's lack of a sex life and her single-minded need for her daughter to find a man and get married. That was really annoying.

There was a semi-romance set up between Charlie and the "infuriating-but-smoldering-hot cop" but it felt forced. I would love to see that delved into further in a more organic way.

Since this was an audiobook, I have to say that I thought the narrator, Khristine Hyam, did a fine job with the different characters, and she injected a lot of feeling into her reading, which was great.

All in all, I enjoyed this cozy mystery, and look forward to reading any further books in this series as I can see the promise in this book.

4/5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an audiobook arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review ( )

This had me laughing out loud. Just the right blend of humour, danger and badassery fun from the girls. There seemed to be something happening at every turn of the page. I loved that the women were not afraid to use any means necessary to defend themselves. The side characters were all great fun. The old ladies who helped investigate added to the humour and Charlie's mother was a total hoot. ( )

Hawai'i, cozy-mystery, island-life, contemporary, multigenerational, murder, murder-investigation, situational-humor, verbal-humor, dachshunds, large-reward, senior-sleuths, stalker*****

Is it OK to mention that halfway into the book I got the free visual so I could get the audio at a discount (I have visual issues)?
This is a positive laugh riot! The sleuthing is good but fun, the romance thing is more about Charlie's mother saying way too embarrassing things to the police detective thinking he would soon be her grandchildren's father. It opens with an unexpected murder in Seattle then moves to an unwitnessed murder on Maui shortly after Charlie met him at her new job. Add in a $1 million reward for solution to the case, a pair of determined senior sleuths, a pair of police detectives, and getting tasered. Besides the great characters, her dog is a dachshund/golden retriever! Excellent read!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from BooksGoSocial via NetGalley. THANK YOU!
On the other hand, the narrator of the audio was a great disappointment. ( )