The Cart Before The Corpse (The Merry Abbot Carriage-Driving Mystery)
By: Carolyn McSparren
Narrated by: Erin Novotny

This is a fine and unique mystery! Can't say I have read a mystery before that was based around a horse drawn carriage. Merry had recently been writing and trying to ease back into her father's life. He left her and her mother a long time ago but they had lately been back in touch. Merry then gets a notice that he died. When she gets there, the landlady thinks he was murdered. After explaining why she thinks so, Merry agrees. The cops don't want the a murder on their town or district record and won't pursue it. So both the landlady and Merry do.
It gets deadly, suspenseful, and intriguing! So many possibilities! So much happens! Very exciting! I really enjoyed the mystery! Edge of my seat kind of thrills!
The end was satisfying and I am glad I picked this up from freeaudiblecodes! Will probably follow this series. ( )

I received an PDF of this for early reviewers, which was probably the biggest drawback, as it was difficult to sit and read it for long periods of time. I didn't really notice any editing problems with the copy I had.

Being a fan of horses I enjoyed this side of the story, the technical part was interesting for me as I don't know a lot about buggy racing. I also enjoyed the mystery element of the story. I may've been more invested in the characters if I'd read the Mossy Creek series, but this is okay to read as a stand alone. All in all, I enjoyed the book enough to read other books in the series. ( )

Hiram Lackland has moved to Mossy Creek and is living in the apartment Peggy Caldwell has renovated. When he is suddenly found dead, lying under the wheel of a carriage he has been trying to restore, Peggy gets suspicious.

Hiram's daughter, Merry Abbott, comes to Mossy Creek to take care of her father's estate and finds herself involved in solving his murder. All the Mossy Creek characters are there, and Mossy Creek is just as nutty as ever.

I really liked this book. I was left wondering who did it until the end. The end was a complete surprise! ( )

If you are a *huge* fan of Murder, She Wrote, this book is for you. Otherwise, this is brutal. This is the first time I've ever been able to say that I couldn't put it down because I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Where do I start? The writing was... floundering, at best ~and that's ignoring all the grammatical and punctuation errors in the uncorrected manuscript. The character's are never developed and wander around the town (as well as the book) haplessly. I didn't find any of them compelling and didn't really give a damn about what happened to any of them, except perhaps the animals.

I realize that this is a spin off of a Mossy Creek series, but it is touted as a start to a new stand alone series. If this be the case, then there should at least be some development to the character of Merry, who is new to the town. However, there is no substance to what should be emotional and dramatic time for Merry. Peggy, who is portrayed as being the 'Jessica Fletcher' of Mossy Creek, suddenly becomes a capable stable hand and horse handler. Random relationships are thrown together for different characters at the end of the book with nothing to support them.

There are way too many plot devices, only a few of which are well managed. It meandered from scene to scene with no real sense of flow. As for the horses, I like horses as much as any suburbanite girl, but there was a lot of technical jargon about carriages that bogged down an already lumbering story.

Somewhere, there might have been a story in there, but it was buried by too many ideas and poor execution. Please don't waste your time.

http://girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/2010/03/jenns-review-cart-before-corpse.htm...
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This was an e-book.

Merry Abbott is called to Mossy Creek when her father dies unexpectedly. Merry is divorced and organizes horsing events for a living. Her father, Hiram, drove horse carriages in races until he grew too old for racing. Upon his death, he was training horses and restoring carriages and other antiques. Merry and Hiram, though estranged through much of Merry's life, were getting to know each other recently and looking forward to spending some time together.

Hiram's landlady, Peggy, believes Hiram was murdered. She and Merry try to find his killer, but find themselves targeted too.

I know nothing about the horse business but could follow along pretty well. This would be a great cozy for readers who do know about horse shows and carriage races. Merry and Peggy are fun female characters. I also liked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, Geoff. And I can't forget about Heinzie (horse) and Don Qui (donkey). I would enjoy reading more about these characters in another book. ( )