CHILL FACTOR - Chris Rogers, narr Peggity Price

From the back of the BOCD: Author of the popular Dixie Flanagan series, Chris Rogers delivers a tale full of surprises and hard-hitting characters in CHILL FACTOR. A bounty hunter in the rough 'n' tumble state of Texas, Dixie is renowned as a woman not to be crossed.

When an error in her account brings Dixie to the bak to fix the mistake, shes shocked to see her longtime friend and neighbor Edna Pine----a sweet and caring grandmother---holding up the bank at gunpoint. Edna escapes but is later gunned down by police after a violent chase, during which the stolen money mysteriously disappears. Local reporters are eager to lump Edna in with a string of other recent "granny bandits," but Dixie is more concerned with what compelled her to rob the bank in the first place.

A vibrant narration from Peggity Price perfectly captures Dixie's crackling attitude.

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Yowzah! This one was a humdingah of a story, very gritty and grim. The police were ready to call it with the 'granny bandits', but Dixie needed to know the root cause after witnessing the robbery committed by her neighbor, someone she thought she knew.

There are flashbacks throughout the book as Dixie reminisces about her relationship with Edna and Edna's son, Marty. Marty is shell-shocked to say the least and asks Dixie to look into the case to clear his mother's name.

There's a lot of duplicity going on and I was thrown for a loop several times as I listened to this suspense mystery. My jaw dropped towards the end...completely did not see the ending when it hit.

I can highly recommend this story and this series either as a handheld book and definitely as an audiobook. Peggity Price is perfect for this story.

Five edge of my seat beans.....

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.....