A new cover image finally enticed me to try to read this book. This was my note to self (ugly and revolting cover (is it a snake or a tapeworm?) What is a didgeridoo? Is it a creepy, crawly? Do I want to know?)

A cozy mystery, though short, had characters that were sufficiently developed to hold my interest. ( )

I received this book for free to review. Duke is my favorite character, I'm just going to start with that. The dialog in Barbara's books is so great, I read so many of these short mysteries and at times it can feel that the author didn't feel invested in giving each character a personality. But in these books that isn't the case. Jamie is a hilarious boring girl that has adventure swirling around her. Being a divorce lawyer from the outside seems like it would be a tedious and boring job, but these books really capture that from time to time it is far from it. ( )

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Death by Didgeridoo is book one of the Jamie Quinn mysteries. When Jamie’s cousin, Adam is a suspect in his music teacher’s murder, she’ll stop at nothing to prove his innocence. Her aunt Peg is in despair. Because of Adam’s Asperger’s Syndrome, he can’t verbalize what actually happened or what he saw, only that it’s entirely his fault. The police have him as the number one suspect and they claim his unsolicited confession is enough to press charges.

The characters in this cozy mystery each have their own unique personality, I really loved that part. My favorite character has to most definitely be Duke. Even though he drank a lot, he was quite the flirt and I found him amusing. Adam is a really sweet kid, and you find yourself rooting for his innocence. I’ve never read anything from this author, but her books are definitely going to be on my list of rainy day reads. Her story flows wonderfully and there’s lots of humor and quirky fun.
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The author nicely sent me a promotional copy of the audio book and I'd like to thank her for it.

The book is short, novella length, the audiobook ran around two and quarter hours, a nice length of time to decide if you like the protagonist without wasting a lot of time. But because it is short the only characters developed are Jamie, the heroine of the story and her cousin Adam a young man with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition I know nothing about but seemed to me to be realistically portrayed in the story.

The mystery itself was well plotted and cleverly solved by Jaime.

The audiobook was read by Carrie Lee Martz and I think she did a fine job with the narration, most especially the character of Adam. ( )

Jamie Quinn is a family lawyer who usually handles divorce ,custody and other types of cases along those lines. She is a mess at the moment. Her mom died six months ago; she took off work to get her life back together, she has insomnia something bad and can't seem to get motivated in any serious direction. That is until her autistic nephew becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his music teacher.

Good for Jamie that she has a BFF who is an attorney in corporate with ties to the DA's office. This gives her a source for what needs to be done to solve the murder and get her nephew off the hook. There is also Duke, a PI with questionable methods and great results, who also owes her for getting him out of a very messy divorce.

It turns out that the victim, Spike, was not well liked by almost every one. This creates quite a large suspect pool to sort through. But it does get done with some unorthodox methods and solid results.

This is a fast paced and entertaining read. The characters are interesting and the action is great. This is the first of the series and a fun read. I am glad to have been contacted by the author, Barbara Venkataraman, to read this and the two that followed. ( )