BITCH FACTOR: Dixie Flanagan #1 - Chris Rogers, narr Peggity Price

From the back of the BOCD: Author Chris Rogers draws on her Texas roots to write the Dixie Flanagan series. Dixie, a former assistant district attorney turned bounty hunter, is legendary in Houston jails for capturing even the most hardened criminals after they've jumped bail.

Parker Dann has been accused of hit-and-run, killing 11-year-old Betsy Keyes as she walked to school one morning. When Parker sees the holiday break as a good time to jump bail, his lawyer calls Dixie to track down Parker before anyone finds out he's on the run. Once Dixie catches up with the fugitive, he's handcuffed in the back of her Mustang before he knows it. But he says that he didn't kill the girl, and claims to remember nothing about the accident. As more evidence surfaces, Dixie starts to believe him.

Rogers' start to the Dixie Flanagan series has been called "funny, clever, and entertaining" (The Washington Times). Narrator Peggity Price channels her inner bitch to voice sassy, tough Dixie.

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I originally put this on my Recorded Books wishlist after listening to the superbly written Domestic Equalizers. This series is also fabulously narrated by Peggity Price....I wanted to hear more of what she'd voiced and looked her up on the audiobook site and found Chris Rogers and her creation of Dixie Flanagan. YAY! I'm not sure how long it might have taken me to find this fab thriller of a series otherwise. And I'd have missed out on some kind of cool bitch that is Dixie Flanagan.

Now, I say 'bitch' in the best possible way. Dixie is the tough investigator, smart, always gets her bail jumper...her methods are rougher than most and the bail jumpers are the ones calling her 'bitch'. I like her. She doesn't take any crap and she has the best dog, named MUD (Mean Ugly Dog).

The description of the book says that it's clever, funny and entertaining...it is...but it's also a thriller that had me skimming some sections due to the content. There were references of child abuse of the worst kind and I had a difficult time listening to those parts, so skipped them without losing the thread of the story.

I liked watching Dixie in action, especially her run-ins with her quarry, Parker Dann. It was a lot of back and forth sparks, suspicion of each other, and more prickly sparks.

Dixie likes mysteries in her reading, one of her favorite authors is Dick Francis (like me) and her favorite of his books is WHIP HAND (same as me), so that was an endearing aspect.

The suspects were all varied with truly grim motives each and plenty of twisted twists and turns...gripping as hell.

Five gripping as hell (and a dog named MUD) beans.....