The Jacq of Spades: Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy

Audio Review: The Jaques Of Spades ( The Red Dog Conspiracy #1) This book is about a female private eye named Jacquiline Spades who is married to a man in one of the four crime families in this city named Bridges in the post-apocalyptic reminiscent of a Victorian Era city. She goes in search of a missing child. A steampunk fiction/ Noir Crime with a storyline that is amazing as there are a lot of twist and turns I was hooked right from the first chapter. If you like mystery, mobsters, corrupt police and a novice private eye you will love this very well written book Looking forward to listening to the next book in this series. Highly recommend listening to this series. I listened on Authors Direct which has issues directly related to the app not the performance or story. Narator Machelle Williams is a highly talented narator. Her inflection was smooth and on point. I felt she portrayed the role of Jacqueline Spades perfectly. Her intonation was exactly what I would picture as Jacqueline's character. I felt like I was right there listening to everything occurring. I highly recommend listening to this audio.

There’s a lot going on in this book, maybe too much. Jacqueline (Jacqui) Spadros is married to Tony Spadros, the son of one of the ruling families of Bridges. She herself comes from the poor, the ‘Pot’. Jacqui has some sort of private detective business going on on the side, very secret. Then there’s a dangerous illegal drug, Party Time, going around. Plus there’s a missing boy. Then there’s the whole setting. Basically, I was intrigued by it all but had little time to figure one thing out before something else was thrown at me. The setting kept throwing me for a loop. It feels little historical, a little steampunky, a little dystopian. I like all those things but never got a firm grasp on what the domed city of Bridges was all about. Plenty of the characters held my interest. Of course, Jacqui is front and center. Now the tale does jump back and forth a bit, telling me in small snippets about Jacqui’s past. However, this confused me sometimes as to what was going on in the present. Jacqui has had all this training from Tony’s dad before she and Tony were married – everything from dressing like a lady to hand guns. She and Tony have been married for 3 years and it’s sometimes been good and sometimes not. I would have liked this story more if we had seen Jacqui in action more instead of simply being told what she can do. There’s Jacqui’s contacts and friends and family that are still in the Pot that add flavor to the tale. Her husband Tony isn’t as limited as he first appears to be. Tony’s dad is a right jerk and I look forward to seeing his demise (I hope) later in the series. Though I still feel like I missed something when it came to him lashing out at Jacqui’s maids. Jacqui’s secret private eye stuff felt over the top. We already have a lot going on in the story and then we toss this in. Jacqui references previous cases she’s solved but I kept wondering how she managed to do that plus keep it secret plus all the training she does for Family Spadros plus just being a lady, etc. I hope this side of her character gets filled out as the series goes forward. So all together, I wanted more from the story by trimming things down. I did enjoy it and I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here. 3.5/5 stars. The Narration: Machelle Williams was OK as the narrator. Her pacing is a bit slow. She does have a good voice for Jacqui. Her female voices were good but her male character voices were sometimes OK and sometimes they sounded like women. There were plenty of emotions in this story and sometimes Williams portrayed them well and sometimes her narration was a little stiff and dead. 3.5/5 stars.