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    A Pointed Death: First In The Pointer Mystery Series
    A Pointed Death: First In The Pointer Mystery Series
    A Pointed Death: First In The Pointer Mystery Series
    Audiobook8 hours

    A Pointed Death: First In The Pointer Mystery Series

    Written by Katharine A. Russell

    Narrated by Kate Luhr

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Welcome to the world of Nola Billingsley, a 40-something biotechnology whiz with an adored shorthaired pointer, who finds herself embroiled in both a nefarious murder and a blazingly hot new romance in the thriller A Pointed Death, by Katharine A. Russell. When techno genius Nola Billingsley finds her former employee, an amoral creep who stole secrets, murdered, she doesn’t exactly shed tears. Instead, she begins a flirtation with the inspector assigned to the case. With her shorthaired pointer Skootch watching her back, Nola and her group of techno pals try to help solve the murder, bringing into play Nola’s feisty feminism and idealism, and putting both her life and her love affair at risk. Finding a link between the Chinese government and American thieves, she bands with a group who believes that biotech people should protect their industry from any evil abusers. Could there be a government plot afoot, and can she save the world even as she tries to salvage her love life?

    Smart, witty, and playful, A Pointed Death looks at the biotech industry with a decidedly feminine slant. The writing is edgy and full of humor, and the plot twists and turns with surprise after surprise. A breathtaking thriller with a unique background, A Pointed Death announces the debut of an enormously talented new writer to watch.

    "A fulfilling read for both mystery and chick-lit aficionados." -Kirkus Discoveries

    Published by RWWRA Publishing. Distributed by Big Happy Family LLC.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBig Happy Family
    Release dateAug 24, 2010
    ISBN9780982960257
    A Pointed Death: First In The Pointer Mystery Series

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    Reviews for A Pointed Death

    4/5

    32 ratings7 reviews

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    • 2/5
      My main problem with this book is the speed of the narrator.I have never heard such a fast speaker. At times the narration was so fast it was difficult to distinguise names, especially as many of the characters appear to be chinese/asian origin. The story itself was ok, not the best at characterisation but not the worst either. Not sure why it is called the pointer series as the dog itself only has a small part. The main solving is done by the dogs owner with help from her cop boyfriend and the dog is only mentioned in passing. Unfortunately due to the speed of the narration I will not be looking for any more in this series or with this narrator.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      When entrepeneur Nola Billingsley finds the body of her embezzling employee, she is not necessarily broken up by the discovery. She definitely wished him dead but the police think that she made her wish come true and think of her as the prime suspect. Nola decides to solve the crime, even as she begins falling for the detective assigned to the case. She and her shorthaired pointer Skootch must unravel the clues to find a murderer before they strike again. I really enjoyed this mystery very much and give it an A+!
    • 2/5
      Narration is jarring. She rockets through the story accentuated by long gulps of air, making it difficult to distinguish between the characters and to grasp some of the technical jargon.
    • 4/5
      I am not usually a fan of mysteries. They often seem like pre-scripted storylines with fill-in-the-blank characters and place names. Not so with this book. The mystery that Nola Billingsley finds herself in the midst of is set against a background of dot-com start-up corporations and the biotechnology industry. I was intrigued right away by the biotechnology aspects thanks to some education in biology myself. Russell often goes into the technical details of this thriving industry, which I think can slow a reader down who does not already understand much of this terminology.Many of the characters are unique, if a bit cliche - such as Nola's southern belle mother, Janie Belle. I also found it odd that Nola mostly referred to her mother by her first name instead of simply calling her Mother or Mom. Nola's pointer dog, Skootch, often stole the show with his antics, but the plot seems to depend on Skootch's behavior for its progression.Other parts of the book that I enjoyed for their own sake was the details that Russell used to bring the setting of San Francisco to life, such as the California cuisine. The polarization of Nola's choice of foods in comparison to her mother's southern cooking made for some interesting situations, and one scene at a crab festival had me salivating in jealousy. Russell is very good with details and descriptions across the board.As for the plot, there was very little to disappoint. There was not much I could predict, no matter how many times I thought I knew what would happen next. The action was intense at times, but it was interspersed with bits of humor and romance to lighten the tension. Most of the subplots wrapped up nicely, with only a bit left over for a second book in the series to pick up. The only real question that I had that was never answered was what Nola's dot-com company actually did before it crashed. This likely was not relevant enough to the plot to be worth including.On the whole, I was delighted that this book was a much better read than I expected it to be.
    • 4/5
      Armed with just a brain and a dog, Nola Billingsly discovers the biotech business can be MURDER!Nola learns the hard way when she finds her former employee beheaded in a park while walking her pointer Skootch. He had stolen from her and ruined her startup, but Nola is determined to solve the mystery of his murder. Industrial espionage is big business, involving an International cast of bad guys from San Francisco to China.Along the way she meets and falls hard for the cop assigned to her fraud case, Robert Harrison. He keeps warning her not to get involved, but she cannot resist.The supporting characters including her mother Janie Belle (a displaced southern belle) her associates, and of course Skootch, make for a fun, and fairly fast paced read.Some of the tech stuff was a little "boggy" for me, but it quickly picked up and raced to a rousing and unexpected conclusion.I hope this series continues because I love the over 40 Nola and of course Skootch.I received this book as a part of a Pump up your Book tour. Thank you so much!
    • 4/5
      A Pointed DeathByKath RussellSYNOPSIS…from the book…Set against a wild and wacky backdrop of San Francisco, the epicenter of the biotech industry, A Pointed Death tells a smart funny and chilling story of espionage and modern love. Techno whiz Nora Billingsley finds her former employee, an amoral creep who stole secrets from startups, murdered. She begins a flirtation with the inspector assigned to the case and counts Skootch…her dog…to watch her back as she is hurled into a world of danger and deceit.This book is the first in the Pointer Mystery Series.MY THOUGHTS…I was not sure how I was going to feel about this book but I have to admit it totally caught me by surprise. I loved the main character...Nora…totally loved Skootch…except for one aspect of his character which you will have to read on your own to find out about but which was hysterically funny as I read it…and totally loved Nora’s mom…Janie Belle, who is an 80 year old church going whiskey drinking straight talking Southern Mama.The book opened up with quite a bang…Nora finds someone who worked for her…sort of lifeless…to say the least. Then Nora gets caught up in all of the tribulations surrounding his death. He cheated her company, he has a mysterious companion, he has a mysterious past and he uses a mysterious natural herb…which Skootch gets a hold of and this turns into another funny depiction in this wacky novel. I say wacky because that is how the author describes Nora but I found Nora to be a really fun and interesting character. Nora has flaws and loves to eat and yearns to be in love. And much of that happens as she gets involved in the mysteries of this crime.I loved the San Francisco setting. We lived in San Francisco for about three years so it was exciting to read about places and areas and even restaurants that were known to me. I loved all of those references. I could almost smell this city.All in the entire book was fun. I was able to take Nora and her circumstances seriously even as I had tons of fun reading about her antics…and also those of Skootch and Janie Belle. I was caught up in the story and I had a delightful time reading A Pointed Death. The author made sure we knew that Nora was a woman…with flaws and concerns and doubts about herself while dealing with this crime. Nora never had anything to wear, she covered up spots on her shirt with a scarf, and she had an appetite for sex and food. She was fun and witty and sarcastic and real. I am going to look forward to the next book in this lovely yet “wacky” series.
    • 5/5
      Nola's dot com company has just went kaput, and part of the reason was because one of her employees, Roger Chen, was stealing from her. So while on a walk with her pointer dog ,Skootch E. Hurry ,she finds a body minus a head slumped on a bench, as she is running away she trips over something, you guessed it, she just found the corpse's head.Whats worse is the corpse, and head, for that matter belongs to the employee who was stealing from her.While normally unlucky in love Nola is surprised when Harrison,the detective that was in charge of the fraud case against Chen, gives her a call and asks her for a date. Perhaps her luck is about to change where men are concerned. She soon finds herself drawn into the mystery of who murdered Chen, and what secrets he was hiding.When she enlists some of her bio-tech friends to help figure it out, they soon realize their is a conspiracy that includes foreign government. Harrison keeps warning her to leave the case to the professionals, will the budding relationship between the two withstand her snooping errr, sleuthing?Nola's character was so much fun! There was no way that she could be overly serious, I mean come on she is 48, living at home with her transplanted 80 year old southern belle mother Janie Belle, whose days consisted of doing various things for her church, drinking bourbon, and dispensing fashion advice to Nola.She also lives with her pointer dog, Skootch E. Hurry, who she rescued from SPCA. The reason she took him home was because she felt sorry for him, he had wagged his tail so hard against the cage it bled. This dog suffers from an amazingly bad case of reoccurring flatulence, he is a spoiled rotten dog that loves nothing better than to eat off of peoples plates, and Janie Belle swears he is really a con artist in doggy clothing.Although she is crazy about him. The scenes revolving around Skootch and his inhaling the libido enhancing herbs were out of this world funny, not to mention his fear of horses or the fights he had with sea-gulls. While this story involves the world of biotechnology, something I knew absolutely nothing about, it really didn't matter because the author writes in such a way that I became totally absorbed in the story anyway, actually by the end of the story I felt like I had learned a bit, oh heck who am I kidding, I still know nothing about biotechnology, but it doesn't matter, what I do know is that the by the end of the story I was totally shocked at who the killer actually was! It was something that I didn't see coming at all, and I loved how Skootch was always around to help save the day for Nola. A great story with very well developed characters, and a plot that will keep you guessing. I fell in love with Skootch, Nola and Janie Belle, and anxiously await the next story in The Pointer Mystery Series.