Mother's Day Out

The Margie Peterson Mysteries, Book 1

By: Karen MacInerney

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Margie Peterson is a typical stay-at-home mom until she trades dishes for detective work to become Austin’s least-likely PI. Soon she’s knee-deep in cheating husbands, transvestites, and trouble in a laugh-out-loud new mystery from award-winning author Karen MacInerney.

With a husband who works long hours trying to make partner and two rambunctious kids that are running her ragged, Margie Peterson is like any other worn-out suburban mom. When she decides to take a job as a PI for a seedy local detective agency, everything changes. It doesn’t take long for Margie to get in over her head: Her first day on the job she totals her minivan, mistakenly enters a drag contest, and winds up in the bathroom with a dead transvestite. But when Margie finds her home number in the victim’s phone, things really start to get interesting.

©2014 Karen MacInerney (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Funny!

Mother's Day Out: The Margie Peterson Mysteries, Book 1 by Karen MacInerney, narrated by Cris Dukehart is an audiobook for Cozy Mystery fans! I was immediately drawn to the fun and quirky plot synopsis, which I'm sure you have already read on your own, so there is no need to go through it for you, again. This is the first title I have read/listened to from both the author and narrator, and I couldn't be more happy with my choice of audiobook! After I downloaded Mother's Day Out, I was immediately hooked. I didn't expect it to be as laugh-out-loud funny as it was! Ha! I loved it! Karen MacInerney's writing is fantastic, and I plan to continue listening my way through the Margie Peterson Mystery Series!

The performance by Cris Dukehart was outstanding! What a great narrator! Everything was right on...her pace, volume, inflection, story-telling skills...she was easy to listen to, and I feel she played a large part in why I enjoyed this audiobook so much. These days I prefer listening over reading, and I feel she made my overall experience that much more enjoyable. Thank you!

Without hesitation, I rate this audiobook 5/5 stars across the board. I am so excited that I found a new favorite author, narrator, and cozy mystery series. If you are a lover of this genre, I am confident you, too, will enjoy Mother's Day Out: The Margie Peterson Mysteries, Book 1 by Karen MacInerney, narrated by Cris Dukehart. It is funny, entertaining, and highly engaging from start to finish!

Thank you so much for reading my review. I hope it was helpful. :-)

Fun

I almost stopped reading this in the first few chapters because it was so corny but I am happy I did not. It had just enough of a mystery and laugh out loud circumstances to keep me hooked and to become attached to the characters. Margie Peterson is a house Mom who has to return to the workplace and like she said, "if I was a stripper or couldn't type I would have a job tomorrow". Hehe. Quite a few funny lines made this a fun read and Margie's genuine naïveté got past the ridiculous portrayed in the start of the book. Not heavy literature but the author spun a fairly good mystery along with some good twists. The narrator did a good job and is the right voice for Margie. Recommend for a tongue in cheek, light read. I enjoyed it.

Cute...

Not quite as enjoyable as Kenny and Dewberry Farms, but still looking forward to the next book and building a similar relationship with Margie!

Excellent mystery

The performance on this audio was top notch! The writing was perfect! Great characters, great plot, great story!

Hightly enjoyable read with a deeper sub-plot

What did you love best about Mother's Day Out?

I must admit I didn't expect much from this story. I bought it as a bit of 'fluff' to read in-between my more usual horror & mystery books, but I was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a pretty good story.I've read all the "Plumb" books and it sounded like this would be similar, but I didn't find that at all - I think it's better, fresher and (in the realms of a story) more believable than those others. This was her first week as a private investigator, Margi is a housewife with no training or much of an idea of what she's supposed to be doing and no real back-up. Stephanie Plumb is a bounty hunter with years of experience and a wide support system. So I don't really think you can compare the two. I loved all the characters, especially "Mr Legs", and I am sure that I've met that headmistress!

What did you like best about this story?

Without giving too much away, I'll just say: motel + saran wrap + a Micky D's fry phone! LOL

What about Cris Dukehart’s performance did you like?

Very easy to listen to, great diction and I could hear her clearly and understand every word.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Not 'JUST' a Housewife.

Any additional comments?

I'm looking forward to book 2. Although it is a humorous story there is a deeper, sadder part to it as well, and I want to know what happens regarding that situation.

It was fun

Overall this was a fun story though outdated. Margie is doing her best but sometimes common sense went 100% out the window. However, there were some funny moments.

Fun story.

Any additional comments?

This is a fun story with some interesting characters, plenty of twists and turns, and just the right amount of humor. Had the ebook for for quite a while, but I never seemed to find the time to read it. Saw I could get the audio add-on for only a couple of bucks so snagged and gave it listen while on my daily walk. Am definitely glad I did. I'll definitely be picking up the 2nd book in the series soon.

Loved it!

Laugh out loud funny! I couldn’t stop listening and can’t wait for the next one!

SAHM<br />

Absolutely amazing story for the stay at home mom. I am a first timer for this author Karen McInerney. I couldn't put out down. She was able to give me a companion since I too am a SAHM.
THIS IS FULL IF HUMOR AND SUSPENSE. A MUST READ!

Mixed Feelings

My feelings are pretty mixed about this one. I really enjoyed the last book by Karen MacInerney that I read a few months ago so I decided to give this one a try when I saw it offered through Prime Reading on Amazon. I had a moment while listening to this book that I considered not finishing it. I decided to keep going and did find the second half more exciting. I would say that this was an okay read in the end.

Margie has been a stay at home mom but she decides to go back to work to help make ends meet for her family. Getting a job turns out to be more of a challenge than she expects until she gets a job with a local private investigator firm. Now while her kids are at preschool, she is out doing surveillance and whatever is needed. Everything seems to be going okay until she finds a murder victim while on the job.

There were a few moments that were humorous during the story but I often felt like the book was trying too hard to be funny. There was never a time that I actually wanted to laugh out loud. I may have actually groaned a time or two due to the forced humor which wasn't all that funny.

I was also not a fan of Margie's husband. From the very start of the story, I didn't care for the man. As the book progressed and I realized that he was hiding a few things, I liked him even less. What I really disliked was Margie's response to everything. I couldn't understand why she wouldn't sit down and have a conversation with him instead of investigating everything. Although, I must say that one of the things that kept me listening when I considered stopping was that I wanted to know what was going on with this man.

I did have a little bit of an issue with how the transvestite characters were treated in this story. The murder victim in this story is a transvestite and had an identity both as a man and a woman. I didn't think that this was handled in the story with any sensitivity. It almost seemed like it was supposed to be funny when the characters stumbled over which pronoun to use.

There were several storylines going on during this book and I wondered how everything would eventually come together. I did find the story to be a bit more exciting once some real action started happening. I did think that some of the things that happened in this book to be a bit of a stretch and there was at least one &quot;clue&quot; that Margie suddenly remembers from the very beginning of the story seemingly out of nowhere.

This was the first time that I have had the chance to listen to Cris Dukehart narrate a book and I think she did a great job with it. There were a lot of different voices that she used to really help bring the story to life. She had a very pleasant reading voice and I wouldn't hesitate to listen to her work again in the future.

In the end, this was a book that had some good moments and some moments that weren't as great. I thought it was okay but I probably won't be continuing with the series. If you are wanting to try one of Karen MacInerney's cozy mysteries, I would recommend picking up Killer Jam instead.