Audiobook – Carol's Notebook

“What Do You Mean, Murder?” by John Hatch

April 14, 2026April 14, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I think "What Do You Mean, Murder?" appeals to a very specific audience, and I happen to fall there. Obviously, it's for fans of the movie, Clue, but you need to also enjoy ridiculously detailed deep dives and trivia. I can see a segment of people who are fans of Clue and just don't care about 90% of what's in this book. But I thought it was fun. The book is broken down into three sections, the first is about the pre-production process of getting the movie written, financed, and greenlit. We see the various writers and directors who were attached to the film over its years in production and how they ways they saw the movie varied. We also learn which actors were considered for which parts before the final cast was nailed down only shortly before the beginning of production. The second section is about the production of the movie, discussing various shots and edits. The author...

The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie

April 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Poirot has a friend over one evening and the topic of names comes up. The man points out that Hercule Poirot is hardly a Hercules. This gets Poirot to thinking and he decides to prove that he is indeed able to live up to the name by solving twelve cases to rival the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The rest of the book is a collection of short stories featuring cases that connect with each of the Labors. Yes, some of the cases are a stretch, but I enjoyed it. I won't go into detail about the stories. Like most collections, some are better than others. I've read them before, but only remembered a couple of the solutions. Poirot is Poirot, quirky, overbearing, vain, but his caring side comes through in several of these. I listened to the audio and Hugh Fraser does a fabulous job as always. It did make me think I should go back and read about Hercules,...

A Disorganised Death by Simon Brett

April 8, 2026April 8, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

A Disorganised Death is the fifth book in the of the Decluttering Mysteries, and I haven't/won't read any of the others. I actually disliked this one. The set-up is fine. Ellen is a widow who declutters clients’ houses, but doesn’t handle house clearances. Her daughter, Jools, runs the London branch of the company, and in this installment, they're both dealing with jobs that involve wills, in addition to the decluttering. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author. And while yes, I do think it's possible for authors to be great narrators and for men to narrate books told from a woman's first-person point of view, but neither worked here. Ellen is a 50-something woman who sounded like an 80-year old man. It's distracting. Ellen has two adult children. Jools, her daughter, is running her own branch of the decluttering company. She lives with her boyfriend in London. Ellen and Jools don't seem close, but they get along....

The Murder of Viscount Montcrief by Karen Baugh Menuhin

April 7, 2026April 7, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

The reclusive Viscount Montcrief, whose country home is not far from Lennox', has been murdered shortly welcoming an acting troupe into his home. Lennox and Swift are sent to investigate, but since it's close to home, we get to see plenty of Florence and Persi, too, and the pets. As always, Swift tries to do everything correctly and by the book, while Lennox kind of jumps around and goes more by instinct. The plot works well. The actors are appropriately eccentric and are trying hard to keep their secrets. We've got a couple of surprising twists, and another dead body or two. Maybe I'm getting a little bored with the series, though....

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

I love that Miss Marple is bored on her vacation at the Golden Palm resort on St Honoré in the West Indies. The weather is always the same, lovely and warm, and the nothing interesting ever happens. She spends most of her time knitting and observing those around her. She also ends up listening to a lot of her fellow guest, Major Palgrave's, stories. When the major ends up dead, apparently of natural causes, Miss Marple is sure that his death was a murder and connected to a story he told her. She puts on her little old lady act and starts investigating. She does rope in an assistant, Mr. Rafiel, a grouchy, wealthy elderly man in a wheelchair. He's really a great character and I love how he and Miss Marple work together - both older and underestimated, but with their own outlooks and resources. We've got a nice batch of varied suspects and a lot of undercurrents of...

The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis

March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Carol4 Comments

I love a good detective novel - and this one just happens to take place in Ancient Rome. Marcus Didius Falco, a former legionnaire now returned from his tour of duty in Britannia and making a not great living as a "private informer," doing what PIs always seem to be doing, working for suspicious spouses and shady businessmen and damsels in distress. The damsel here is Sosia Camillina a sixteen year-old who literally runs into Falco at the forum while she is trying to escape from kidnappers. He, of course, steps in to help and lands right in the middle of a conspiracy involving theft from the empire. We've got mystery, murder, family squabbling, and a potential love interest (not Sosia, but her cousin Helena Justina who is divorced from her first husband). We also get transported to ancient Rome, but in a way that makes it accessible and interesting. We get snippets of historical events and learn what everyday life...