Nanci Rathbun

Angelina Bonaparte is a tough 50 something private investigator. She is clever, resourceful, and she has connections.

She makes friends easily, but of course, due to her profession, she makes a few enemies along the way, too.

Her first case is a tricky one, because it looks as if the suspect is guilty of the crime he is charged with, plus, at first, it is a conflict of interests, because she was looking into said suspect on behalf of his betrayed wife.

Angie, a betrayed wife (now divorced) herself, is reluctant to accept the case, but in the end, she does, and sets out to find the true killer.



I like Angie. She does a tough job, but at the same time, she doesn’t try to be manlier than a man, but uses her charms and looks, her femininity, and not least her wits and connections to get what she wants.

She is quite obsessed with her clothing and her looks,and describes herself as a ‘hottie’.

I have to say, that nearly put me off, and the detailed descriptions of what she wears for which occasion quite lost me, but I guess it may appeal to some readers.

However, her sense of family, and her being a grandmother and being proud of it got her some bonus points in my book. On the surface, she seems to identify herself through her clothes and her looks, and the sex or lack thereof, but there is more to her than that. She is quite the family gal, though she loves her independency.

Her view of society and how it works is sharp and accurate, and she can be funny.

I love the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, I was very nearly tempted to look them up.

The case as such, and how she goes about it, are quite convincing, even though there is some luck involved, but I didn’t grudge it.

Kieren Culland Metts does a very good job at narrating the story. She doesn’t sound too young nor too old for the part, but exactly right. Her pronunciation of foreign words is fine, and her character voices are distinct.

This was a good listen, and I’m looking forward to the sequels.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nanci Rathbun. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (meer)

This is the second volume in the Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries series, and I enjoyed it as much as, if not more than, the first volume. You don’t need to have listened to (or read) the first volume to understand what is going on, but some characters are easier to understand if you know the first book.

This time, we meet with a lot of the characters from the first volume, but the case Angelina is investigating is a lot more serious and dangerous than the first one.

This book is quite political, but it is not about US politics. It is about war, and what that does to people — the victims as much as the perpetrators.

Here, we deal with an especially heinous post war crime. In German, we’d say: Leichen pflastern seinen Weg, which means as much as that there is a high body count where the killer is near.

It isn’t obvious from the start who is the killer, and even once it is, it takes a while to understand what exactly is behind all of this.

Angelina herself is a lot happier than she was when we got to know her, and there is a reason for that (which I won’t go into).

She is still very much obsessed with her clothes and her looks, and again all those detailed descriptions are totally lost on me, but that is the only beef I have with the story.

Again, there’s a quotation at the beginning of each chapter, and again, I was tempted to look them up. I like this way to start a chapter.

The characters become more distinguished, especially Angelina’s love interest.

Once again, Kieren Calland Metts does a perfect job at narrating the story.

Now, I can’t judge the pronunciation of the Polish words and words in the other foreign languages, but they sounded good to me. My impression was, that Kieren has done her homework and informed herself about the pronunciation.

Again, I enjoyed listening to this book and would recommend it to anyone who loves a good detective story/mystery.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nanci Rathbun. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (meer)

FROM PUBLISHER: A murdered mistress. An accused mob boss. Can two detectives put their differences aside to find the real killer?
Angelina Bonaparte is starting from square one. After a messy divorce, the middle-aged librarian put down her books and picked up a new gig as a private investigator. When a mob boss heads to jail for his mistress' murder, she has no issue with the womanizing scumbag rotting in prison. But when the suspect's pregnant wife swears his innocence, Angelina can't find it in her heart to refuse the case.

Already reluctant to get involved, her frustration grows when she's forced to work alongside Ted Wukowski, a homicide detective who thinks a crime scene is no place for a woman. In the search for clues along the mistress' long record of broken hearts and promises, Angelina's natural charm is the perfect complement to her temporary partner's take-no-prisoners interrogation style. And before long, she and Ted can feel their grudging respect transform into an undeniable attraction.

To solve the case and catch the murderer, the PI and the cop must learn to trust each other completely before an innocent man goes to jail for a crime he didn't commit...

Truth Kills is the first book in the suspenseful Angelina Bonaparte Mysteries series. If you like clean mysteries, fierce female investigators, and whodunnits with a touch of snarky humor and a hint of romance, you'll love Truth Kills.… (meer)