A Flock and a Fluke (Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries #2)
by Hillary Avis
Narrated by Kitty Hendrix
My Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF
Blurb:
The plot chickens…It’s springtime in Honeytree, and Leona’s pullets are finally laying. Customers are flocking to buy her farm-fresh eggs.
But during the town’s Easter Egg Scramble, Leona finds more than hidden treasure when she stumbles on the dead body of the pastor’s wife. And the death isn’t a fluke—it was poison.
After Leona’s eggs are blamed for delivering the fatal dose, her customers fly the coop along with her reputation. With her nest egg dwindling, she doesn’t have time to brood. Her only hope to rise back to the top of the pecking order? Figure out who held a grudge against Honeytree’s golden girl—and why.
But things get tricky. Her two leading suspects also happen to be running for mayor. And neither one of them is crowing when Leona fowls up their campaigns with her clucking around.
Can Leona take the heat of small-town politics? Or will she be forced out of the frying pan with egg on her face?
A Flock and a Fluke is the second book in the clever, irreverent Clucks and Clues Cozy Mysteries series that will keep you chuckling and guessing until the end.
No gore, swears, or other yucky stuff. Just good, clean murder.
My Review
I received a free audio copy of this book through Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.
After listening to the first book in this series I was excited to start listening to book 2. This was a great sequel and I am really enjoying this series so far. The chicken theme is a fun one and the mysteries are great.
A Flock and a Fluke takes place a few months after book 1. Leona has settled in a bit more and the chickens have started laying eggs, so her egg business is slowly starting. When Leona and her best friend stumble upon a dead body during the town’s egg scramble there are rumors the dead person was poisoned and Leona’s egg business might close before she ever had a chance to get it off the ground.
I liked this mystery, there was enough to keep me guessing and I like the way we continue to get hints as the mystery progresses. Even with only a few suspects it was tough to figure out who had done it. A few times I was thinking in totally different directions, but by the end I settled on two suspects and one of those was right. And only then it was obvious how far out some of my earlier guesses were. I really enjoy how this author writes the mysteries. It feels like it’s constantly progressing with Leona finding out new information, but at the same time it’s hard to figure out who had done it and it kept me guessing till the end.
I liked seeing more of Leona and her farm. It was great seeing her egg business starting now and the progress she made since the last book. Just as in the previous books she can be a bit confrontational at times when confronting suspects, but I liked how she kept going till she figuredout who was the murderer and how determined she is to find out the truth. She still has a tendency to push her friends away at times, but she does better than in book 1 and I like how she apologizes when she was wrong. I like how realistic she feels. I also like how the detective hears her out even when he doesn’t think it’s murder. There is still the hint of romance in this one as well.
The narrator did a great job with this book as well. I liked her voices for the characters and it was pleasant to listen to this one. I do like to speed the narration up a little bit for this one, which I usually don’t do.
To summarize: I was happy to return to the town of Honeytree in this second book. This was a great sequel, more of Leona and her friends and another great mystery. It was fun to see how Leona’s chicken farm and egg business has progressed since last book. This book again had a great mystery, even with only a few suspects it kept me guessing. I enjoy how the mystery has a lot of progress throughout the book with Leona constantly finding out new bits of information, but at the same time I wasn’t sure who had done it till the end. And some of my guesses along the way were really far away, but by the end I ended up with two suspects one of whom was correct. I like Leona and how she feels realistic, sometimes making mistakes and letting her emotions lead her, but she’s also very determined to find out the truth and apologizes when she was wrong. The narrator does a great job with this series and I look forward to the next book!
Love that it’s set on a chicken farm and an egg business. Neat that the second book was as good as book one.
Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Jagged Edge by Kendall Talbot
I like the setting on a chicken farm and reading about how she handles the egg business. It’s a fun theme for a cozie.