ANGELINA BONAPARTE MYSTERIES, #2
BY NANCY RATHBUN
Narrated by Kieren Calland Metts
Publisher: Dark Chocolate Press LLC
Released: April 24, 2018
Length: 9 hours 40 minutes
Sub-Genres: Modern Detective / Mystery
A double murder. A mysterious inheritance. One PI is about to follow the money all the way into a den of thieves…
After surviving a bullet, Angelina Bonaparte was certain she could handle any case that came her way. But when her next client walks through the door with an unexplainable seven-figure inheritance after the death of her parents, the private investigator wonders if she's in over her head. After all, when she visits her client's family attorney, Angelina discovers yet another bloody crime scene.
With the help of her new flame, Angelina follows the clues into an underworld of war-plundered artifacts, stolen treasures, and deadly consequences. As their last lead grows colder, the PI must catch the killer before an endless cycle of murderous greed gets her client killed.
Cash Kills is the second book in the suspenseful Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries series. If you like hard-as-painted-nails female detectives, historical mysteries, and twists and turns you won’t see coming, then you’ll love Nanci Rathbun’s loaded crime thriller.
Buy Cash Kills to follow the money trail to a sassy, suspenseful mystery today!
✪✪✪✪
HALL
WAYS REVIEW: Audio book review. Author Nancy Rathbun is
back with a second book in the Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries series. Cash
Kills comes to readers with a new, enticing mystery, a steadily increasing
body count, and a relationship for main character Angie that’s moving to the
next level. Though the book is part of a series (and I loved book one, Truth
Kills), it easily stands alone with Rathbun giving plenty of background
to get readers up-to-date.
“Put not your trust
in money, but put your money in trust.”
-- Oliver Windell
Holmes
Cash
Kills has a fascinating premise and readers really want to know
what’s up with this woman and all that money – and so does Angelina! Once the
digging begins, people start dying and an intricate and long existing web of
criminal activity begins to get exposed. This story goes into some dark places as it
pulls in dealing with the treatment of Muslims and victims of Sarajevo. Rathbun
took me out of my cozy novel comfort zone by bringing reality in – and it
brought me to tears. The author even provides some notes at the end with
sources/resources for information about Sarajevo. Cash Kills has a diverse cast of characters and raises cultural
awareness not only with the story line, but with the basic cast of characters and
their Sicilian and Polish roots.
Readers get to better know
Angie’s family and the dynamic of her tightly knit Sicilian family. As is the
case in the prior book, women of a certain age will enjoy Angie’s relationships
with her now adult children and her grandchildren. The best part is that though
Angie cherishes her roles as daughter, mom, and grandma, she still retains her
femininity, identity, and sexuality. And wow – her sense of style! It is fun
that readers always know exactly how Angelina looks. Some may not care for that
level of detail, but I find it fun hearing her fashion choices made depending
on the vibe of each situation.
Since our fifty-something
Angie comes from a mafia family, it’s often a bit of a quandary for her to
separate herself from the mafia ways of getting information, providing
protection, and financing deals. Angie is clever enough to use those perks legally
to help her investigations, but it’s the mafia, so she really doesn’t have a
choice. Ted Wukowski, Angie’s policeman
boyfriend, also has to cleverly deal with his girlfriend’s mafia ties and
propensity for finding dead people. This provides plenty of opportunity for
misunderstanding and make-ups.
“While
I missed the sensual pleasure of handling
catalog cards in their narrow
wooden drawers,
I appreciated being able to search based on key words.”
BONUS POINTS AWARDED:
Angelina is a former librarian, and it comes through as the good thing it is, loud and clear. Her vocabulary (she uses sybarite! Yaaass!) is fabulous and her
thought process leads her to find answers at an academic library, which gives
readers the awesome character of Lilly the librarian! She is cast in the
positive, helpful light where she belongs and is a hoot; I really hope Lilly
returns in the next installment.
“A
morning without caffeine is simply not worth living.”
Yes, bonus, bonus points are
being awarded. Angie repeatedly gives credit where credit is due and that’s to her
morning coffee. A woman after my own heart. That is all.
My only gripe with Cash Kills is that readers get an info dump, via the police, that spells out the
complicated scheme behind the money and murders. It's logical that Angie would learn the information that way, but it felt forced. Even so, I highly recommend this
series thus far, especially to women approaching or in mid-life. We rarely find
ourselves in books as kick-ass main characters, and Angelina shows us that we
are capable and even formidable in all kinds of roles. She’s a great reminder that we can define
ourselves however we want.
ABOUT THE NARRATION: Narrator Kieran Calland Metts returns to
perform Cash Kills and IS the voice
of Angelina Bonaparte. As in book one, she continues the choice to be very
matter-of-fact in voicing Angelina whether she’s talking about a gory death
scene or a sexy love scene. Metts makes Angelina sound pragmatic, slightly
sarcastic, but not unemotional – perfect to match Angie’s librarian background.
(After all, librarians see and deal with a lot of s**t and must solve the
problems without falling to pieces.) There are a few places where Metts falls
out of her accent, but she voices the international characters well.
Technically, there are some uneven volume issues here and there, but overall, Metts
does an excellent job and makes me more than ready to listen to the next
installment in the Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries series, Honor Kills.
Thank you to Audiobookworm
Promotions and the author for providing me an audio download in exchange for my
honest opinion – the only kind I give.
I received this audio book as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nanci Rathbun. The gifting of this audio book did not affect my opinion of it.
Nanci Rathbun is a lifelong reader of mysteries – historical, contemporary, futuristic, paranormal, hard-boiled, cozy … you can find them all on her bookshelves. She brings logic and planning to her writing from a background as an IT project manager, and attention to characters and dialog from her second career as a Congregationalist minister.
Nanci grew up an Army brat, living in Germany, France and Korea, as well as several states in the U.S. After her dad retired from the service, the family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, Nanci raised her daughter and son, while working at AT&T. She never expected to move, but when her second grandchild was on the way, she wanted to be closer. One of her greatest joys is hearing her three granddaughters shout "Nana" when she comes in their front door in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Nanci and her Maltipoo, Teeny, now live in Wellington, Colorado. No matter where she makes her home, she will always be a Green Bay Packers fan.
Kieren Calland Metts is addicted to audio books. She has almost 1,000 in her Audible.com library and has listened to most of them! She tends toward mysteries of all kinds, especially cozies, and YA dystopia.
She grew up a diplomat brat, traveling to tours in Baghdad, Iraq; and Kabul, Afghanistan. After several more moves in the U.S., the family settled in Ohio.
Kieren has a background in copy editing, book & newspaper design, and web production, adores arts and crafts, and has a weakness for fluffy orange kitties.
$25 Amazon Gift Card⎮Runs Oct. 16th-Nov. 5th⎮Open internationally
The Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries Giveaway: $25 Amazon Gift Card
Oct. 23rd:
The Book Junkie Reads . . .
Lynn's Romance Enthusiasm
Oct. 24th:
Dab of Darkness Book Reviews
A Page to Turn
Oct. 25th:
Bound 4 Escape
Blätterflüstern
Oct. 26th:
Jazzy Book Reviews
Oct. 27th:
2 Girls and A Book
Turning Another Page
Page Princess
Oct. 28th:
Writers N Authors
Book Addict
T's Stuff
Oct. 29th:
Lilly's Book World
The Book Addict's Reviews
Hall Ways Blog
WATCH FOR HALL WAYS BLOG'S REVIEW OF BOOK THREE, HONOR KILLS, ON THE NOVEMBER 5, 2018 STOP OF THE AUDIOBOOKWORM PRODUCTIONS TOUR!
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