Welcome to one of the February 6th stops on the blog tour for The Invisible Case (audiobook) by Isabella Muir, organized by Rachel’s Random Resources. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more features and reviews!
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About the Book
The Invisible Case
A Janie Juke mystery Book Three
by Isabella Muir
Print/eBook
Published 30 June 2018
Outset Publishing
Page Count: 213
Audiobook
Published 20 November 2020
Narrator: Bridget Eaton
Length: 5 hours and 45 minutes
Genre: Historical Mystery
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
A shocking death turns a homecoming into a nightmare
It’s Easter 1970 in the seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, and for one family the first Easter of a new decade brings a shocking tragedy. Amateur sleuth and professional librarian, Janie Juke, is settling into motherhood and looking forward to spending time with her family. When her Aunt Jessica is due back from Rome after nine years travelling around Europe, she arrives back in town with a new Italian friend, Luigi, and the whole family soon get embroiled in a tangle of mystery and suspicion, with death and passion at the heart of the story.
As time runs out on Luigi as prime suspect for murder, Janie has to use all of her powers of deduction in the footsteps of her hero, Hercule Poirot, to uncover the facts. Why did Luigi come to Tamarisk Bay? What is the truth about his family?
As Luigi’s story unfolds, tragedy seems to haunt the past, present and unless Janie acts fast, possibly what is yet to come.
The Invisible Case is the third book in the Janie Juke series of crime mysteries and is available now at the special pre-order price of just £0.99. While you are waiting to read The Invisible Case, why not take a look at Janie’s other mysteries – The Tapestry Bag and Lost Property – both available from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback.
What readers have been saying about the other books in the Janie Juke series:
- 1960s mobile librarian turns sleuth and channels Hercule Poirot in this great whodunnit that left me guessing right till the end. Intriguing detective story with lovely period setting and interesting characters. I’m looking forward to seeing what Janie Juke solves next. Love the relationship she has with her ex-policeman father
- I love how the characters have developed in this book which is full of perfect period details (the Italian food scene made me laugh) and twists and turns till the end. Will definitely be reading the next in the Janie Juke series.
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My Review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Consider “liking” my review on Goodreads.
I was granted complimentary audiobook access to The Invisible Case via Rachel’s Random Resources for my review stop on the blog tour for this title. Thank you to all involved! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Story: 3 out of 5 stars
Performance: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I’d like to start by saying that I was not aware this is not technically a stand-alone when I signed up for the tour, but I don’t feel that I was at a disadvantage. This book can be read/listened to as a stand-alone. At no point did I feel like I was missing vital information. A lot of minor character information and world-building is filled in through dialogue with enough callback to their past that everything fills in.
What I liked: The British family characters and the Italian guest home owner are all very interesting and likeable characters (excuse me for avoiding all the names, there were a lot and I listened to the audiobook so I’m not sure on spelling.) I also enjoyed the family drama element between Luigi, his father, and his father’s associate.
What I didn’t like: Luigi. A whole lot of problems would have been solved if he would just be a little more forthcoming with totally innocent and mundane information and stop whining. Since Luigi was the primary suspect for everything happening in this book and I didn’t care about him at all, and the murder victim was a random associate of Luigi’s father who conveniently showed up just after Luigi arrived in England, I wasn’t at all invested in “who dunnit.”
The narration was good! Bridget Eaton is pleasant to listen to and I didn’t have any trouble figuring out which character was speaking/thinking at any given time. I will comment that the default playback speed was particularly slow. 1.5x felt close to normal conversation speed and 2x barely felt sped up. If you listen slowly then this one is perfectly paced. If you listen quickly, this may be one of the ones you crank up faster than usual.
Overall this book was a relaxing story with a good mix of characters and I would definitely recommend it as a light read that’ll keep you engaged. As for mystery genre readers specifically, I say give it a try, but like me you may find the murder is not the most compelling element of the plot.
About the Author
Isabella is never happier than when she is immersing herself in the sights, sounds and experiences of the 1960s. Researching all aspects of family life back then formed the perfect launch pad for her works of fiction. Isabella rediscovered her love of writing fiction during two happy years working on and completing her MA in Professional Writing and since then has gone to publish five novels, two novellas and a short story collection.
The Invisible Case is the third book in her Sussex Crime Mystery series, featuring young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke. Set in the late 1960s, in the fictional seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, we meet Janie, who looks after the mobile library. She is an avid lover of Agatha Christie stories – in particular Hercule Poirot – using all she has learned from the Queen of Crime to help solve crimes and mysteries. All three novels are now available as audiobooks.
As well as three novels, there are three novellas in the series, which explore some of the back story to the Tamarisk Bay characters.
Her latest novel, Crossing the Line, is the first of a new series of Sussex Crimes, featuring retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi who arrives in the quiet seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, to find a dead body on the beach and so the story begins…
Isabella’s standalone novel, The Forgotten Children, deals with the emotive subject of the child migrants who were sent to Australia – again focusing on family life in the 1960s, when the child migrant policy was still in force.
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