
Helen Phifer
Author

Alison Campbell
Narrator
1.23.2025

Almost Finished
Well I’m almost done with this series. Crime novels are kind of difficult to do Daily Reacts to because I can’t give away any spoilers and pretty much you’re just along for the ride. It comes down to whether it’s interesting enough to keep you reading or whether it gets boring or ridiculous.
I have read A LOT of UK crime novels … Kim Stone is one of my favorite series but given that Angela Marsons writes a book every 6 months or so like clockwork because of the contract she has, it means that eventually when you get down to the 11th or 12th book you start to find them a little … repetitive. I love the character of Kim Stone but the books hold less and less interest for me. Similarly, I ADORE JD Kirk’s Jack Logan series. I love everything about the team and his writing style but some of the books are tedious and a little boring at this point. I think when you read the same genre or same authors over and over you see their patterns, the words and phrases they rely on, the outline of action that they stick to, and it becomes either very cozy reading or it becomes really annoying.
I am enjoying this new series and I see there are something like 15 of them and I know eventually the same thing will happen if I read them too quick or one right after the other.
I will absolutely continue reading these books but I doubt I will do too many reactions or reviews of them going forward. I wanted to introduce them to people that may not know they exist mainly because they are so DIFFERENT from other crime novels and they offer a very different view of police work from the perspective of someone who is unlike most detectives. It’s refreshing and what stands out to me most is the KINDNESS of everyone. I love that and it’s rare.
This book has definitely taken a turn for the wild and surprising! I am excited about the resolution!
Story this session: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
1.19.2025

I Adore This Series
Chapters 1 thru 9
This is the second book in the Detective Morgan Brookes series by Helen Phifer. I listened to the first one quite some time ago … before I had decided that I wanted to write these experiences into my blog. I had been looking for a new series about a female detective because I was coming to the end of the Kim Stone series and honestly, I have been worried that there would be no series I would enjoy as much.
When I first was looking up this series I found a review about the first book that called it “Barbie’s First Police Case” or something to that effect and when I started listening to it, I understood where such a brutal, misogynistic, hateful comment would come from.
Morgan Brookes is a wonderful, kind, open, thoughtful, amazing detective. The people around her are also equally epic people who support her, nurture her, want to teach her and take her under their wing to allow her to discover who she is as a detective. She is surrounded by people who care about her and she cares for them. There is no negativity. There is no anger. There is no vicious, irrational, woman hating … except from the one male who was passed over for a position that she got … one she is very under qualified for but that she deserves purely based on who she is, not what she has accomplished. She is being given a chance to succeed because she is good at her job, compassionate, empathetic, kind, full-hearted, and has great instincts … and that’s the ONLY reason. And that’s also ENOUGH.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this setup because … it’s FICTION. It’s the creation of someone who wants to tell a story like this and I welcome that. I welcome a POSITIVE and EDUCATIONAL perspective of what it is like for this new detective and how she learns the ropes and the ins and outs of what it means to be a DCI in this mentor program. She is supported by everyone. She is cared for. It is so ABNORMAL that I think some readers call bullshit and get angry. These are very emotionally dysregulated readers who don’t understand that not every story is FOR them and not every piece of fiction is supposed to follow some specific set of rules where everyone has to be angry and selfish and grizzled and miserable and uncooperative. There doesn’t have to always been animosity and hatred in a book to motivate people. Sometimes people can be motivated simply because they CARE about other people and want to do a good job.
I don’t think that’s unrealistic … I think it’s FICTION and that’s what all these books are. FICTION. If you’re mad at fiction for not being fictitious enough I’d say you’re just out here looking for things to be mad at.
One of my favorite aspects of this series it that it TEACHES. It teaches the reader because Morgan is learning things for the first time. I have been reading so many UK crime novels to the point where I think I have a very clear idea of how things work, how scenes are processed, and how evidence is gathered etc. But I am still learning things and so is Morgan and when she is told how to file something or how to question someone or what to do at the hospital when a suspect is checked in etc … you’re learning too, you’re getting insight into the system and I think that’s wonderful.
So the assholes that call it “Barbie’s First Police Case” are just that … assholes. It’s a learning experience and it’s a positive one because everyone around Morgan WANTS her to learn and ENCOURAGES her to learn and SUPPORTS her learning process and that’s not dumb … that’s not unrealistic … that’s wonderful and refreshing to read.
This is a wonderful series and especially if you want a step by step explanation of how UK police cases and procedures work.
I quick note on narrator Alison Campbell: She is the kind of narrator I love; the kind that does LINE READS, not just reads lines. When a character says something funny, she laughs in her response … even when it doesn’t say “she laughed”. When a character is just waking up she voices them in kind of a sleepy, just waking tone even though it doesn’t say “he said sleepily”. She is giving a PERFORMANCE and she’s giving the characters LIFE … she’s not just reading lines and only giving emotes when the author has written it in. I LOVE THAT. Those are the kinds of narrators that I can tell also ACT. You can tell right away which people just read well and which are PERFORMERS. It makes a huge difference in the quality of the audiobook.
Alison Campbell is a new narrator for me and as it turns out she reads MOST of Helen Phifer’s female detective series (there are four different ones).
I can’t wait to experience some of the others with her as narrator.
Story this session: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars4.5
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Current Review
Subject to change as I continue to experience the book …
