Audiobook Review: Read and Gone by Allison Brook

Author: Allison Brook
Narrator: Mia Gaskin

Title: Read and Gone

Series: The Haunted Library Mysteries #2

Genre: Cozy mystery, Paranormal, Romance
Pages: Audiobook
Published: September 11, 2018
Where I Got It: Audible

Summary: 

A devoted dad is as precious as diamonds, but Carrie Singleton wouldn’t know since her dad Jim’s been on the lam most of her life. In an unusual family reunion, she finds Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. The fun really starts when he begs her to help him recover his half of a twenty-million-dollar gem heist he pulled off with the local jeweler, Benton Parr. When she refuses, Jim takes off again. Carrie finds her father again behind bars for the recent murder of Benton Parr. Who made the connection? Unbeknownst to her, Carrie’s boyfriend Dylan, an insurance investigator, has been searching for the gems. Determined to find the jewels herself, she starts examining every facet of Parr’s life. She turns up a treasure trove of suspects, one of whom bashes her on the head as she’s searching the victim’s country cabin. Retreating to the quiet confines of the library where she works, Carrie watches as Smokey Joe, the resident cat, paws at a hole in the wall. Is he after the library’s ghost Evelyn, or something shinier?

Review: 

Finally diving into book 2. Been waiting on this one. 

Back with Carrie who thinks life is finally perfect. She has her dream job at the library. She has amazing friends and family and a cute cat. Oh and she has a cute boyfriend. Things seem to be going great just in time for Christmas until her dad shows up. Her dad is a professional criminal. He comes to town to beg her to help him recover his half of a 20 million gem heist he pulled off with Benton Parr. When Benton is found dead, Jim is suspect #1. Dyan, Carrie's boyfriend, comes back from a job and it turns out that he is an insurance investigator and he's been searching for the stolen gems too. Many people are after the gems so there are many suspects on the table. It will be up to Carrie, the library ghost, and her cat to find the gems and the murderer. 

Every time we turn around there was another twist. I loved that. I really had no idea who it could've been. Everyone had a motive. Benton was one bad dude and he really took advantage of EVERYONE. Gah. What a scumbag. 

I think I enjoyed this one a touch more than book 1. However, I did still have some of the same issues, but they didn't bug me as much I guess. Yes, the author overexplains EVERYTHING. We really don't need that much detail on what they are eating and etc. I love a good detail, but even I have my limits. It really slowed the story in some spots. 

Also, we rarely got to see our library ghost in this one! Sure she had some sage advise for Carrie (which I feel like Carrie ignored 50% of it), but not much else. She helped with a teeny tiny lead....-ish. I wanted more of our ghost friend!

The ending was nice. No cliffies which is lovely. I do think I want to read the next one. I read the summary and I'm shooked! Yessss! Utterly shooked! I can't wait to see what happened. 

In the end, I liked this a hair more than the other one. I love our main cast and I loved the mysteries. Lots of suspects and a cute kitty. Plus Xmas themed? Love. I did have a couple issues still, but it's easy to ignore and keep going. I'll give this 3 stars. 

ONE WORD SUMMARY: Twisty

Challenge(s):

- Audiobook #60

- Cloak & dagger #25