review: a simple murder by eleanor kuhns

As the lawyer says at the end of A Simple Murder, the plot is "overly complicated;" however, I enjoyed that I couldn't put together all the details of the murder before Eleanor Kuhns intended.  William Rees, who apparently frequently becomes involved in criminal investigations, is asked to assist the Shakers in identifying who murdered one of their new members shortly after Rees arrives at the community looking for his teenage son.  His son, David, sought out the Shakers after his aunt and uncle, who were supposed to look after him and his father's farm, sent him packing.  This was a subplot that I found distracting.  It really added nothing to the story other than creating a reason for Rees to visit the Shakers in the first place, but it ended up continuing as Rees eventually confronts his sister for mistreating David.  Fortunately, most of A Simple Murder is about the details pertinent to discovering who killed Sister Chastity. 

About the narrator:  Richard Waterhouse did a great job distinguishing between voices, but I sometimes found him to be a little shrill in regard to the female characters.  There were also a few times when the inflection he used was different from the way I would've read it.  His choice of inflection isn't necessarily wrong, but it did make some scenes read differently than I would have guessed.
4/5
Review copy provided by AudioGO.
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