A Deception Most Deadly was a combination of a cozy mystery and something else. I suppose I think it was also part period drama. Overall, I liked my time in Cassie Gwynne's head, and I enjoyed her dialogue with others. I did think that there were many portions of the book that could have been shorter and still achieved the same ends. The narrator did a great job of doing different voices and helping the listener distinguish between characters, and it didn't feel too over the top with the accent that it was distracting. A great summer listen!

DNF as found the narrator very difficult to listen to with the ever changing and giant character list. Could not hold my attention and I kept zoning out but from the bits I did hear that didn't matter too much as there was not much happening! I was interested in the premise of the story and the era but could not get on with this. Maybe I would benefit from the physical book.

Cassie Gwynn is sassy and a true fighter. Genevieve Essig tells a wonderful little tale in A Deception So Deadly. This cozy mystery has a lot of merits and I’m so happy to have met Cassie and the whole gang.

Aunt Flora is a treat with all her animals, especially Roger the pig. I really need a pig named Roger in my life. Did I mention that Roger wears a bow tie? How adorable is that?!

Alas, back to the review. Cassie never spent much time being fashionable or ladylike. She had better things to do with her life than that. But, when she arrives in Florida, she is all prim and proper. She tries hard to keep up the act, but almost immediately off the boat, she thwarts a policeman trying to secure a lady’s pocket from a thief…that Cassie chased for the same reason. Then she trips headfirst over a dead body. Yeah, Cassie’s fashionable front lasts about as long as a trip to the retiring room.

I liked Cassie, though she was a lot to take in at times. She is too much of a do-gooder for me. I would have enjoyed a bit more spark from her sass. Flora is a hoot though. I adored Flora. The sheriff is also a right piece of eye candy that I wanted more of.

The narration by Lauryn Allman was good. I enjoyed her voice, and she told the story well. I like that she used different voices for the characters. I would listen to Lauryn read again.

But I don’t think I’ll choose any more Cassie Gwynn mysteries. The scenery and the storytelling are very good. I just didn’t like Cassie as much as I should have.

A Deception Most Deadly is a delightful romp of a mystery, with a spunky heroine and compelling side characters that surround her. I found myself giggling and sympathizing with the wide array of people in Essig’s novel. From the main character’s aunt to the officers she deals with while solving crimes. This book was an absolute delight.

A Deception Most Deadly by Genevieve Essig

3.5 stars.

Finally getting the rhythm of work so now I can be more active here. And finish arcs.

And this took a bit of work to get into. I think it’s me more than the audiobook as I’ve been distracted by work. Still, I started to enjoy it and get into the story about a quarter in.

Cassie is our lead here. She moved to Florida to be with her aunt for a fresh start after her father passed away. It’s 1883 and things were different then that what we’re used to. When a death happens in the town, and her aunt is accused of murder, it’s up to Cassie (and the deputies) to prove the coroner (who is the investigator, judge and jury here) wrong.

The mystery is good. And the characters are interesting and at times, quite a character. And maybe too many characters in the background? At any rate, this is a series so I’m looking forward to the next installment of Cassie’s adventures.

Thanks to @bookouture and NetGalley for the arc of this audiobook. I enjoyed it.

Thank you Netgalley for the audio copy in exchange for a honest review. Following her father's death Cassie Gwynne goes to stay with her long lost Aunt Flora. This historical mystery has it all. Murder, mystery, twists and turns

Great mystery story! I would love to read more of these.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my feedback.

A Deception Most Deadly is a cozy mystery novel set up in 19th century Florida.

The first few scenes were great, but everything goes down hill very fast and doesn’t go up until the very end. There are two main problems in the book, characters, and pacing.

Let’s first talk about characters. The main character is Cassie Gwynne, a young heiress from New York whose father was recently murdered and is now looking for her only living family, her estranged aunt Flora, who lives in Fernandina harbor. Cassie is fine. I don’t really have any problems with her. In the beginning of the story, she seems like interesting and funny character but soon after she gets swallowed by so many things in the book and the story loses all focus.

Aunt Flora was awfully annoying for me, both as a character and as a narration voice in the audio book. She is described as strange but kind perfume maker, animal lover and animal rights activist with large company of friends and animals and respected business owner. In reality, my impression of her was one of a whinny character without much agency in the story. We later find out about her tragic back story and how her mistakes led to the tragic accident and ruining of her family. Ever since then she is trying to redeem herself by kindness to others, but we don’t get to see much of that in the book. In short, I was not impressed by her and generally don’t like her.

In the first scene we also meet Hugh, a strongheaded police officer with whom Cassie enters into quarrel and everything leads you to think there will be some romance story developed there, but Hugh is not mentioned much until very end of the story and hints of a romance remain, I guess, for the next installment, which is missed opportunity in my opinion.

There are many, many more characters in the book, but honestly, I don’t remember much about any of them, and I didn’t really care. The similar thing happened with the plot.

We have a standard murder mystery. The local authorities want to frame Flora for it and Cassie is determined to find the real killer. The mystery part wasn’t intriguing for me. The main problem was the style. Descriptions are too overwhelming and detailed. It works in the beginning because we got familiar with the setting but later on it’s unnecessary and it keeps you away from the story. Every minor character is described in elaborate way, every scene, house, garden, road, everything. On so many pages nothing happens. For example, there is a dinner situation, bunch of random people are sitting in the living room, talking, like regular people does, but nothing contributes to the story, and it takes half the chapter. After a while I wasn’t interested in any part of the story anymore. It picks up close to the end but after all it’s not enough.

I’m going to give it 2,5/5 only because deep down there was a version of this book that could have worked.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of A Deception Most Deadly (A Cassie Gwynne Mystery)!

This was an amazing audiobook. I loved the characters, narration by Lauryn Allman and the story were great. This book was a typical murder mystery taking place in Florida in 1883. It had the usual aspects of a murder mystery, someone gets murdered, a person helps the detective to find the murderer but it takes a lot of twist and turns till the end reveal. I personally love this setup with a murder mystery. This setup makes it a easy way to read because you know how the setup is, BUT it works every time! (I also lover every BBC murder mystery series with this setup so I am just a sucker for these.)

The story is written in one perspective, that of Cassie Gwynne. She needs a fresh start and visits her aunt Flora in Florida. She is a bit clumsy even if she tries to be a proper lady she ends up multiple times with a tear in her skirt, messy hair or dirty shoes. I loved this aspect of her and made her for me more relatable. (I am also clumsy) During a walk with her Aunt they find the body of Peanut Runkles, the town grump and her aunt's neighbor. Flora and Peanut have been fighting for year witch is make matters worse for Flora.

The characters were amazing. Everyone has a different story with a different personality. I didn't found any character annoying and found them very layered with they're different backstory's. They also were very shoutable for the time period. All they're problems were perfect for 1883 and reminded the reader that the story wasn't in the present time.

The narration of the book was very enjoying. Lauryn Allman has a nice voice to listen to and gave the characters suitable voices. She didn't over do the voices and were also proper for the time period. I found that I forgot the time while listening to her and will definitely look for other story's narrated by her.

If you like a quick murder mystery story witch isn't complicated but fun to read I would definitely recommend this book. It's a great book to get you out of you're reading slump.

This book was super good. It has strong female characters who play important parts in the book. The plot is interesting and keeps you hooked until end and still the real perpetrator is somewhat of a surprise.
All in all, a good and enjoyable historical mystery

I have absolutely nothing remotely bad to say or have any critiques to be said about this wonderful highly enjoyable story!! The narrator of this audiobook was incredible! The story line and writing style was completely addictive and I was constantly wanting to listen to more! The story was so atmospheric and the perfect balance of cosy and mystery!! I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel of this book and to hear more from our incredible main character Cassidy!!

After the death of her father, Cassie Gwynne moves to live with her aunt. Upon arrival, Cassie finds her aunt in a police cell, an incident soon resolved, but when an unpopular neighbour is found dead her aunt becomes a prime suspect and Cassie is drawn into an investigation to clear her name & bring the real killer to justice.
Of course, it’s not a smooth investigation and there are some nice twists & turns with a decent ending but I liked the idea of this book better than the reality – it would have worked well as a novella without all the unnecessary padding in the middle that made the pace very slow.
I listened to the audiobook and it took me quite a while to warm to the narrator. Americans may not struggle but to my British ears, the accent was very strong & quite grating, and there was not the differentiation between characters that I hope for in good narration.

After the death of her father, Cassie Gwynne comes to live with her aunt, but she has hardly been there five minutes when an unpopular neighbour of her aunt's is murdered, and her aunt is the prime suspect for the crime. However as Cassie investigates further, she discovers that almost everyone in town has motive - but who was it who committed the crime, and why? This was a gentle, ungritty murder mystery investigation with a host of quirky characters, all of them voiced delightfully by the narrator. I usually prefer my murder mysteries with more grit and gore, but this worked particularly well in an audiobook format and I enjoyed it even more than I expected.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the audiobook in return for an honest review.

This one reminded me of an Agatha Christie book. I was first drawn to the cover and then Cassie Gwynne continued to impress with an enthralling plot full of twists and turns. Cassie created fun, multidimensional characters that you felt you knew. There was a lot going on in this book-it covers relationships, a murder trial, fires, deceit, lots of animals, and the bond of blood. I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed the narrator. I felt part of the story. This was a fun one!

I chose to listen to the audiobook Arc of this brand new cozy mystery series set in the late 1880s. It was narrated well by the narrator Lauryn Allman but in hindsight I think it would have been better if I had chosen to read the book instead. The mystery was fine and the twist and reveal at the end was good but I had difficulty keeping up with the large array of characters, their backstory and their connection to the plot and my attention did wane at times while listening.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture and the author for the audio ARC of the book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for this eARC

A Deception Most Deadly follows Cassie Gwynne who is visiting her estranged Aunt Flora after the distressing events which led to her father's death.
After the arrival of Cassie her Aunt gets accused of murder and it's a race between time to catch the real killer.

I must admit I didn't enjoy this as much as other murder mystery novels. The premise of murder mysteries are great but this one fell flat, it was too out there in places - the donkey scene!
I also struggled with the narrator on this audiobook, the whole novel struggled to captivate my attention and I felt it waning alot.

This one was alright but not great. I just couldn't get into it like I had hoped I would. Maybe it was just me being in the wrong mood.

I have been on an audiobook kick and cozy mysteries. So, I chose this book.

The narrator was really good and the plot twist was decent. I did enjoy that part.

However, I could not get past the description and character of Cleo, the cockatiel... This is a simple thing to overlook for many. But being a bird person, it stuck with me. Cockatiels do not talk or enunciate words clearly. Their mimicry is restricted to musical tunes, whistles, and very tonal words. Nothing like the depiction of Cleo in this book.

Also, I am not sure if there was a glitch in my audio version, but some of the chapters ended abruptly.

Overall, I am not exactly sure how to feel about this book.

Thank you #NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for giving me the opportunity to listen to this.

#ADeceptionMostDeadlyACassieGwynneMystery

I found this cozy to be a little too cutsey for me, but I think it would appeal to fans of super sweet cozies. I applied for this book because I thought the historical setting sounded interesting, but we aren't given very much of that. Instead this is a very character-heavy book with a lot of fun animals and easy feminist takes. I wanted the book to be a little richer, but I could see this book appealing to readers looking for something very light.

A jump in the past, but still full of chills and wonders.
It was great to discover their world and growing with the characters!
Not sure I grasped it all as an audiobook and probably would have been better as an actual book but still worth the try