In Deep Shitake by Patricia Mason

Narrated by Michael Karl Orenstein

Imogene “Mo” Tuttle is a former culinary student turned Private Investigator who is doing her best to curb her habit of swearing. Because of her love of food, she’s turned to food related sound-alikes in substitutes (eg, cheesewhiz!). Given the task of breaking into a particular Mercedes and checking out any documents inside, she unfortunately finds herself stuck in the sunroof – and In Deep Shitake. When actor Ross Grant returns to his rented car to find a curvaceous ass..paragus sticking out of his sunroof it is the beginning of what will eventually be a sweet romance. But first, the pair must wrangle with obsessed fans from North Carolina, an underhanded tabloid reporter, a grasping ex-girlfriend, a blackmailer and the Russian mob.

Ross is in Savannah to secure funding for a movie which is the project of his heart. His career isn’t doing very well and he’s sick and tired of only being known as “Stephen Dagger”, the lead character in the hit movie “Spy Matrix” which was released 10 years earlier. Ross is British and I gather Stephen Dagger was a cross between Remington Steel and James Bond. One of the running gags in the book is Ross being constantly recognised by fans as Stephen Dagger and never for himself.

It’s a screwball farce of a romantic comedy and the sort of thing I could easily imagine playing out on a big screen. As much as it has plenty of slapstick, Mo isn’t stupid and she follows the clues to come up with the right answers before anyone else does. While she was occasionally the butt of a joke, she was also good at her job and smart as a whip.

There were a couple of plot points which didn’t gel for me and which didn’t seem to go anywhere and when events took a dark turn late in the book, I was a bit surprised because it didn’t fit with the tone of the rest of the story. Many of the secondary characters were stereotypical – I don’t think natives of North Carolina end up looking all that good – and some of the jokes were a bit too obvious, but I did find myself laughing out loud at some of it and generally enjoying the audiobook. The bit with the unlucky henchman, the gators and the chicken was hilarious.

The narration was, for the most part, very good. Mr. Orenstein does that thing where, if there’s a laugh/cough/clearing of the throat mentioned in the text, he will laugh or cough or clear his throat and that’s never been something I’ve enjoyed. He also often left an insufficient gap between one sentence and the next, which often created more urgency than the text required. However, he performed the various accents very well – especially Ross’s British tones – and I thought he did quite well with the female voices. If the Russian accents sounded a little over the top, well, there was a good reason for that. Perhaps best of all was his comedic timing and the way he delivered the various food related faux-expletives such as “fajitas!” or “frosted flakes!” with the same fervour as a real swear word.

Here at AudioGals, the reviewers are encouraged to try self-published titles which we discover while browsing at Audible and this was one I was glad to have found. I’d definitely be happy to listen to more from both the author and the narrator.

Kaetrin

Narration: B

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (but at the tamer end of the scale)

Violence: Fighting

Genre: Romantic Suspense/Comedy

Publisher: Patricia Mason