ALISSA YARBROUGH

Birds Alive!, the first book in the Empty-nesters Cozy Mystery series by Jen Dodrill, is about a woman who finds herself an empty-nester once her youngest child has left for college. Somewhat listless and seeking to turn over a new leaf, she starts a bird-watching club and gets more excitement than she anticipated when the club's first outing involves the death of one of their members.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler.” “Say what?” The young woman broke from the view of the busy street and shielded her eyes to take in the man sprawled at the wrought-iron table. “It’s what the Louisiana French say: ‘Let the good times roll.” The Louisiana French had to have something there on this fair Spring day. ..

There is beauty in the arrangement of words, and while I understand in fiction you cannot bore the reader with an overabundance of descriptions and flowery phrases, there needs to be a balance between keeping the pace of the story while not altogether ditching eloquence for directness.

I'll be honest, my audio skills aren't that great. If I want to learn something, I'll need to see it in print to fully consider and understand the subject. This is the exact opposite of some of my siblings who thrive on audio.

University artifacts? Provenance papers? The originality in setting instantly set this book off from the usual suspense novels as I was deciding on a Colleen Coble book to try.