The Cracked Spine cover art

The Cracked Spine

Scottish Bookshop Mystery, Book 1

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The Cracked Spine

By: Paige Shelton
Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
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About this listen

In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols takes the leap and moves to Edinburgh, Scotland, to start a job at The Cracked Spine. She doesn't know much about what she's gotten herself into other than that the work sounds exciting and that her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime.

When she arrives, she meets her new Scottish family; also working at The Cracked Spine are Rosie, perpetually wrapped in scarves, who always has tiny dog Hector in tow; Hamlet, a 19-year-old thespian with a colored past and a bright future; and Edwin, who is just as enigmatic and mysterious as Delaney expected.

But before she can settle in to her new life, a precious artifact - a previously undiscovered first folio of Shakespeare's plays - goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio. Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio and how it's connected to the tragic death - all without getting harmed herself.

©2016 Paige Shelton-Ferrell (P)2016 Tantor Cosy Detective International Mystery & Crime Mystery Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Fiction Scotland

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Critic reviews

"As warm and inviting as a cup of tea and a serving of fresh-from-the-oven shortbread." (Ellery Adams, author of Writing All Wrongs)
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As a story it provides an escape from daily life. The narrator has done well in her attempts of Scottish accents but failed badly in getting the particulars of speech from Edinburgh and the Lothians. It irked me for a while but it did grate less harshly as time progressed.

A decent story but flawed by the narration

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The actual Story Line was good, but this was negated by the Scottish aspect of the voice over. All other voiceovers were fine, imo.

Agree with other reviews, the attempt at a Scottish accent is astoundingly bad.

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it was ok but not brilliant. I found the main character annoying so wasn't invested in what happened

I liked the narrator

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If you can ignore the horrendous narration of any accents other than USA , it is a far fetched murder mystery. It’s free on audible and there are more; so no doubt, the cheap skate that I am will listen to more ..

Written for Americans??

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Well, as cosy mysteries go this was nice enough, but truly hard to believe. I guess it might have been better in a setting the author is familiar with. Choosing Edinburgh/Scotland wasn't a smart move. I can't believe that in a big city like Edinburgh, which attracts tourists from all over the globe, anybody would have made such a big deal of meeting an American woman.
To my untrained ears, the narrator did a fine job with the accents, so the listen was enjoyable.

Wrong setting

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Well read by the narrator Carrington MacDuffie. With a great set of characters. Well plotted and written.

What did you like best about this story?

The mysteries contained within The Cracked Spine bookshop.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The underground tour.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Delaney saw Hamlets face.

Any additional comments?

Great start to a New Series. Hope we will get more audio books in this series.

First in a New Series!

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The narrators attempts at a Scottish accent was quite off putting at times and occasionally annoying

Storyline was good

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Such a disappointment that the story is ruined by the awful accents. An insult to Scotland.

Dreadful reader - Awful Scottish accent

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Other reviewers have mentioned the narrator's 'bad' Scottish accents, I wasn't bothered by them at all, but I'm not Scottish. I found the story long winded and ponderous. I took a chance and fast forwarded quite a few chapters and am pretty sure I didn't miss anything. I am going to listen to the next book in the series to see if it's more interesting.

Ponderous

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some glaring mispronounciations. Robert Louis Stevenson is pronounced Louie not Lewis. Clerk is pronounced Clark in Britain. etc. Apart from the mispronounced words the Scots accents were a bit dodgy and narrator sounded like they had a blocked nose.
Story line was reasonable and easy listening.

easy listening

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