Fame Is a Killer

Cute fast mystery.

Where does Fame Is a Killer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Better then average............. is so quick that you never get bored.

What other book might you compare Fame Is a Killer to and why?

N/A

What about Rachel Carr’s performance did you like?

She is a good narrator with an optimistic perky voice that keeps the story moving.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

N/A

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

15 sur 15 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Fast & funny!

This is a cozy surprise! Fame is a Killer is a quick mystery featuring Hope Hadley , an actress who has her TV show canceled, is dumped by her boyfriend finds herself as the suspect of his murder. With no alibi, she uses her learned skills from her acting role to seek out the murderer and clear her name. Holly is a strong character, and I find her easy to relate to. This is fast paced, has interesting characters and is full of lighthearted fun.

Rachel Carr's narration is full of the exaggeration and quirkiness that I expect with a character like Holly. She keeps a good pace and made for an enjoyable listen.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Silly, mildly annoying short mystery story

In short order, Hope Hadley wraps up the shooting on the last episode of her long-running, newly-cancelled tv show, The Sassy Sleuth, has her boyfriend of the past year dump her for an actress half her age, and, entirely too early the next morning, is informed by the police that said ex-boyfriend, Trent Harper, has been murdered and she is a suspect.

She has no alibi for the one-hour time frame within which he was murdered, because she skipped the wrap party.

When she can't convince police Detective Noble to immediately rule her out a suspect, she concludes she has no alternative but to clear herself by finding the real killer. That this could be dangerous is barely noted in passing.

What follows is just silly, and not in what appears to be an intentional way. Hope asks obvious questions of obvious suspects, is frustrated and annoyed that everyone she questions quickly becomes hostile, and doesn't as far as I can tell uncover anything the quite competent and intelligent Detective Noble wouldn't have found out on his own, much more efficiently and safely. I stand by this conclusion even though he is presented as being impressed by her different perspective and valuable insight, at the end. It just isn't plausible.

Light, entertaining, short mystery story, that may annoy the heck out of you if you like your mysteries to be plausible and reasonably intelligent in how the investigation proceeds.

Not recommended, though I wouldn't run away from it if you have a couple of hours to kill.

I honestly don't remember if I bought this audiobook, or if I got it free as part of a promotion of some kind. In any case, I'm reviewing it voluntarily.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Not so cozy

Fame is a Killer - Cozy Mystery

Not as good as I was hoping for. I just couldn’t connect with the main character, finding her shallow and unlikeable. There is a lack of emotion in the story. It ended up being a mystery without the cozy.

The narration was okay, but there was no variety of voices for the different characters.

I received this audiobook free for an honest review from Audiobookworm.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Fame Is a Killer Hope Hadley Cozy Mystery Series,

Hope is finishing up a show....the final show. The higher ups have decided that it's time for a change. At the final party that night her boyfriend tells her that he's fallen for someone else..an 18 year old co-star. The next morning she's awoken by a knocking at her door...a detective wants to speak to her. That's when she's hit with the news that her boyfriend has been murdered and she's a suspect. Now the race is on to find the real killer before she gets the starring role in this drama.
Fantastic audio and a fabulous narrator, Rachel Carr , brings the characters to life and grabs your attention as you listen to the story unfold.

Cute cozy mystery

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers - Hope Hadley isn't the most likable person. She's accused of murdering her very recent ex-boyfriend, so she tries to find the killer to keep from being charged with murder. I don't know that I would go snooping around asking potential killers what they were doing at the time of the murder. Come on, they just killed someone. Do you think they wouldn't do it to you, too? Overall, though, it was a cute cozy mystery- a quick story of only about 2 hours.

Very enjoyable

Funny, relatable, very enjoyable. I look forward to listening to more books by this author.

Meh ...

As a fan of cozy mysteries, I was incredibly keen when I got a copy of Fame is a Killer free for review. However, after listening, I find myself with mixed feelings; having not enjoyed the book as much as I had anticipated.

In regards to the characters, the main character, Hope Hadley, is annoying as heck and quite emotionally immature when it comes to her investigations; I had a difficult time believing that she was meant to be a woman in her 40s. Personally, I didn't enjoy her at all and wished that she would leave the crime-solving to the professionals.

As for the actual story, it was very simplistic in style and missed a lot of details that could've made it significantly more interesting. It was quite unrealistic that any sleuth would only have to question each suspect once and suddenly come up with an answer. It was disappointing as I could see clear potential in the mystery.

In terms of narration, the narrator was solid - not excellent, but definitely not bad; her voice was enthusiastic, clear, and pleasant enough to listen to.

Overall, while this book let me down in a lot of ways, it was an alright way to kill two hours, although I am unsure if I will continue onto the other books in the Hope Hadley series.

Good Start!

Fame Is a Killer is a fast paced cozy mystery that didn’t disappoint! It was a nice change to have the main character as an actress and in her 40’s. It would have been more enjoyable if there was more background and character development so I could connect with them instead of it all happening suddenly. This is my first time listening to Rachel Carr and there was never a dull moment. I love the tone and passion that she used throughout the narration that brought Hope’s character and the story to life. The performance was smooth and effortless as it switched between characters even though all of the characters sounded alike. I can’t wait to finish this series and see where it goes!
*I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Probably better in print than audio

I'm always on the hunt for new cozy mysteries and there seems to be plenty of wonderful choices in the audiobook world. The premise of this series caught my interest as I enjoy cozies with actresses, Hollywood, or celebrities. There are times I want something quick and short and the first book in this series, Fame is a Killer, fit the bill (pun intended) at a little over 2 hours long.

Holly Hadley is having the worst day of her life. First, the TV show Sassy Sleuth in which she played the lead character has cancelled, supposedly because she is considered "over the hill" in Hollywood at age 40. Then her loser actor boyfriend Trent Harper dumps Holly during the TV show's wrap party because he has a new girlfriend, a 19-year-old version of her former self. Worst comes to worst when Trent is found murdered.

Since Holly played a detective in her TV show for 7 years, she thinks she has acquired the skills to solve this murder herself, right? One caveat, she is the prime suspect. However, that doesn't stop Holly from trying to clear her name. It's hard to resist a book who has a character who is that optimistic.

As Holly teams up with her BFF Jenna to solve the mystery, it provided lots of entertainment and light-hearted amusement. Although the mystery seemed pretty well plotted out and not overly complicated, it did not provide any surprises. I do plan to continue with the next book in this series as I'd like to find out what is the sequel to Holly's life.

Rachel Carr is a new narrator to me. With straight narration and no dialogue, the narrator did a good job. She had a pleasant voice that was crisp and clear. She provided the right amount of perkiness to the main character, Holly. The pace was perfect. I normally adjust my narration speed between 1.2-1.5X as most narrators seem too slow for my ears. With this narrator, no adjustment was necessary and seemed just right at 1.0X speed.

I would like the narrator to explore more vocal ranges, tones and pace with each character. There was little to no distinction between the character narrations, male or female. The narrator monotonically used the same pitch, tone and pace with each character's dialogue. Holly sounded the same as Jenna, who sounded the same as Trent, who sounded the same as Amy, who sounded the same as Scott, and so on. This left me confused and dissatisfied. For this very reason since I enjoyed the mystery, the main character and the supporting characters very much, I plan to continue with the series; just very unlikely on audio.

Story: 4 stars
Narration: 2.5 stars


I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.