A Frosty Mug of Murder

The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub #1

by Constance Barker

Who Killed the Black Widow?

The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub is in full blast mode when proprietor Ginger O'Mallory discovers someone has offed the town's Black Widow before the woman can take out another husband. Secrets swirl and the hooch flows in this brand new series centering around an Irish Pub with a crazy clucker name. And what is with all the spooky goings on with a ghost chicken attached? Find out in this hilarious romp filled with colorful and wisecracking characters.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Paranormal, Amazon, Murder Mystery, Fiction

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2018

About the author

Constance Barker lives in the Midwest with her husband and two Akitas where she can look out from her screened porch onto a wooded area brimming with activity. Since she was a young girl she read mysteries, often given to her by her grandmother. She loved figuring out who the culprit was and sometimes she was right and other times startled at who the author picked as the assailant. Now she enjoys writing mysteries herself. When she isn't writing stories, she can be found in her favorite vacation spot, Las Vegas or shopping for bargains.

Reviews

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 2 out of 5]

Characters: 2.5 stars
Setting: 2.5 stars
Humor: 3 stars
Plot/Writing: 2 stars

Overall rating: 2.25-2.5 stars

Side note: Major cover love :)
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I think I saw this one on a Goodreads Giveaway or a Random Rec from Amazon (not sure)... I was in the mood for a new cozy mystery so picked this at random off my wishlist on Amazon (it being .99 didn't hurt either).

Anyways, this one was just "okay" for me. I did love the setting the idea of the "Ghost Chicken." Plus some of the humor was good, especially from Donna. She reminded me of my soul-sister Stephanie when she was coming up with new phrases while trying to cut down on cursing hehe.

Some parts of the plot were good and well done but parts of the story felt rushed. Some of the things the gang discovered seemed to come too easily for them or the events surrounding a particular clue made no sense. A couple things as well seemed to be there simply to move the plot and characters to a certain point.

I did like the mix of personalities in the people we met though. Reminded me somewhat of the quirks of certain people in Stars Hollow.

At times too, the writing was more telling than showing... which made it harder to care about events in the story happening.

Probably won't continue with the series but still had fun here so wasn't a total waste.

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

A frosty mug of murder is a cozy murder mystery in a small town called Potter's Mill.

It was well written and concise but maybe a bit too many characters for a short book. This was the first installment in The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub series yet I felt like characters weren't introduced properly at all. We were just sort of expected to guess who's who.

Also, the main character, Ginger was a bit off. I liked Ida and Piper better than her. This would have been a 4 star read if they were the MCs.

The mystery turned out to be a little predictable and I was disappointed that there was no huge plot twist.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple dialog, fun characters, and a story that held my interest. The main character owns a pub (that may or may not be haunted) called The Grumpy Chicken. She spends a lot of time trying to get everyone to follow the rules and not do anything illegal in her pub, but never actually enforces anything. I was ready for her to kick people out or be quiet about the gambling, computer hacking, etc. Overall, it was on the silly side and entertaining.

[Caitlin C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really can't stand giving books bad reviews. I would rather not write a review than give a bad one. I could barely read this book. I didn't like the writing style. I also was overwhelmed by the number of characters and all the nicknames given, I couldn't keep anyone straight. Ginger O'Mallory runs the Grumpy Chicken Pub which has been in her family for 150 years. So has the ghost of the grumpy chicken that haunts the place. The Grumpy Chicken is the local gossip mill in their small town so when Ginger finds the dead body of the local black widow everyone comes in to ask her questions and try to solve the murder. I really wish I liked this book. I loved the concept and everyone rallying around to solve the murder but I just couldn't get past the writing.

[Nola Arganbright · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Chicken did it

This is such a hilarious book and I loved every minute of reading it! The Grumpy Chicken is an Irish Pub located in Georgia with ghost chicken who rules the roost so to speak. The names given to the characters are a laugh into themselves. Quirky characters to match their names join together to help solve a murder in their small town. The Chicken even joins in to direct the Pub's patrons.
This was a quick read for me because of the good flow of constant action. I look forward to my next visit to the Grumpy Chicken!

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this book, it seemed really hard to get into and hard to follow. Ginger and her dad live above a pub, the book starts out with another pickle jar having fallen to the ground and broken during the night. then the story switches to the local yarn and fabric store where a local get together about crafting turns into a gossip complain session. Donna’s cat wonders in and Ginger goes to take it back and finds Donna dead. Then mix up after mix up before the killer is found. It was supposed to be written to be funny but it missed.

[Kellene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laughed... alot! That's one of the best reviews I can give a book, especially right now with all the mess going on. What's not to find funny when a book is set in the Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub, with it's very own ghost chicken? The characters are a hoot, with the three guys who hang out in the bar (Dog Breath, Guardrail and Digger) leading the list of fun. The mystery was okay, although I had that one pegged pretty quickly. The read was quick and easy. The characters made the book.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Black Widow is dead....Murdered. She is
found by Ginger O’Mallory who runs the bar
called the Grumpy Chicken Pub where the
beer flows like water and the customers are
all small town, colorful, quirky and all want to
help solve the murder.
The murder is the main plot but the other
mystery is why the picked egg jar keeps
getting broken, why the lights flicker and
there is a horrible screeching. Is the bar really
haunted by the ghost of the Grumpy Chicken?

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous!

An average cost mystery. I found it a little too silly for me, but it was funny enough to pass the time.

[Barbara Hackel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brand new series is off to a terrific start! Ginger (who owns and runs the Grumpy Chicken Pub with her dad) multitasks running the pub, keeping up with gossip, and now solving a murder. It's all because of those darn cats! When one of them gets into the pub, Ginger decides to take it back to the owner, Donna. She must have dozens of cats if not a hundred! They are all over the walks, the steps, the lawn, and inside. When Ginger goes to the door to deposit the wandering cat, she discovers Donna on the floor-dead. Strangled and left in a shambles, Ginger can not find a pulse, so she calls the police.

News in a small town travels faster than the speed of light, and by the time Ginger makes it back to the pub, it seems like everybody knows what has happened, and they are all talking about who could have done it! Her group of loyal friends with names like Digger, Dog breath, and Guardrail assemble quickly and are ready to help. Best friend Piper and hacker extraordinaire Ida are quickly setting up headquarters in Ginger's office. Before long the group, plus a few others, have a list of suspects and are arguing about the name of the crime solvers club they have created.

Aside from the murder, there are smaller mysteries that surround the pub. For instance, why does the pickled egg jar keep getting pushed off the counter and breaking during times when no one is there? This week's broken jar brings the count up to three... During a discussion about the murder, the power flickers and goes out for a moment. After checking fuses, Ginger and her waitress Dixie hear a distressing sound and lights go out. They check the fuses and discover nothing wrong. They check the walk-in freezer and discover the marinating chicken wings have turned a green color, and there is a "R" written in the thick, now green sauce. No explanation for the power failure. Some say it is the work of the haunted/paranormal chicken that lives in the pub and is featured in the name. The broken pickle jar this morning has already been blamed on the phantom bird, and it is likely more will be blamed on it in the future.

This is a fun slice of life in a small town with an odd-ball combination of people coming together to solve a mystery in their own town. Ginger's Aunt Mae, a police officer in town, can't even scare them out of detecting! Good thing, because this band of misfits is full of good ideas and funny ways of doing things which make the book enjoyable from start to finish. Personally I liked it so much that I am already looking forward to the next one in the series!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an obviously self-published book, this was okay and had its moments. I thought it was fun.

The premise of an Irish pub set in the middle of small-town Georgia sounded like it would be fun and funny, and it was. The combo of small-town shenanigans with a supposedly haunted [by a grumpy chicken, no less!] pub made for some amusing moments. The fact that Ginger and her motley [very motley] band of assistants insist on sticking their noses into the murder investigation just added to the mayhem going on in Potter's Mill.

The mystery was fairly well-done, and there were clues for those who like to play sleuth themselves. But it is really the amusement of this gang of misfits playing detective that make the fun in this book. The antics of the "scooby-gang" are quite funny, almost slapstick at times and I found it fun to go along with them on their cock-eyed sleuthing.

The fact that this is a self-published book doesn't lessen the annoyance for this word-nerd at the amount of typos, spelling mistakes and lack of editing that the book has. Those things probably don't matter for most people but they bug me and distract me from enjoying the story. It is also a super pet-peeve of mine when a book does not have page numbers! Seriously, if you are going to the trouble of self-publishing an entire book, how hard is it to put numbers on the pages?!

Overall this was a light, fun read. I don't know that I would go out of my way to read others, since the only place to get this and others by this author are on Amazon and this was pricier than I think was warranted. But I did enjoy reading this.

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ginger and her father own and run the Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub. The pub got its name because it’s allegedly haunted by an angry chicken. Ginger tries to downplay that aspect of the pub, but she has bigger fish to fry when she pays a visit to the town’s resident black widow and finds the woman dead in her home. Ginger dutifully calls the police, one of whom is her Aunt Mae. Aunt Mae assures Ginger they’ll get to the bottom of things, but Ginger is compelled to get involved in the investigation. Soon several of her regulars are involved, too, leading to mayhem. Will the pub’s patrons be able to solve the murder before the police do?

This was a fun story, but it was somewhat vexing to read. Grammar was okay, but the punctuation was a hot mess. There were times I’d have to reread a line to give it the proper inflection in my mind, because it should have ended with a question mark instead of a period. Commas were missing or misused, and it really did lessen my enjoyment of the book. In addition, Ginger spent virtually the entire story haring off to “investigate”. I give kudos to her employee, Dixie, who called her out on her bullsh*t because they needed her at the pub. Characters were portrayed well and included an eclectic mix. There were also the dozens of cats that the victim had in and around her home to add some comic relief.

Likable enough for a score of four, but poor editing and Ginger’s near-constant sleuthing knock it down to a three.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing

I'm a fan of another of this author's series but I think she missed the mark on this one. The protagonist's narratives are written in the same, literate voice as in the other series but the dialogue has too many characters -- including the protagonist -- talking like they have only 4th-grade educations. Between mixing objective and subjective pronouns (a failing also apparent in the author's other books), missing clarifying (and grammatically correct) commas in dialogue, and misspellings (e.g., mixing "its" and "it's," spelling Inspector Clouseau "Clueso," "Silas" as "Silus" and using the noun "setup" for the verb "set up"), I found the reading cumbersome.

Finally, there are the plots. The side plot of the Grumpy Chicken mystery (unresolved) was too farfetched. The main plot -- the whodunnit -- was OK but having a "gang" of more than half dozen people running around a small town trying to solve a crime after specifically being told by both the sheriff and a deputy to stop also stretches credibility. What makes most non-professional detectives' crimesolving work is that there's only one or two people involved ... and it's discreet.

I hope the next book in the series will be better structured (and edited).

[Helen Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constance Barker's recent series, The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub is Quirky—a strange mix that is interesting, appealing, strange but cool, Fun. There is A Lot to Book 1, A Frosty Mug of Murder. Characters, nicknames, goings-on. As Constance Barker does with her other series, I look forward to see how, where she takes us with each added book. Twenty-something Ginger O'Mallory 'oversees' an Irish pub in a small Georgia town. It has been in her family for generations. And it is haunted by...A Grumpy Chicken. Den mother may best describe Ginger's relationship with her employees and clientele. This eccentric group of characters and their names may be the author's most outrageous yet. From good ol boys Guardrail and Dog Breath to a hobbyist hacker, even 'hog' riding spinster sisters. Sleuthing is being added to their daily menu of gossip, bedlam and small town mayhem. Will they become known as the Grumpy Gumshoes?!? Most of them hope not. I received this book as an ARC. I am voluntarily posting this review.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder, small town life, and a ghostly chicken?

The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub is a local watering hole and eatery in Potters Mill, GA. While returning a wayward cat to its owner, Ginger O’Mallory—proprietor of the Grumpy Chicken—discovers that the wealthy owner of the cat is dead. Grumpy Chicken regulars band together to help solve the mystery of who the murderer is. While some of their methods are more than a bit dubious, they do discover a key piece of information that solves the crime. The characters of the story seem quite unique and I am looking forward to getting to know them better while reading this series.

[Joy Gerbode · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a really well-written book, with a fabulous, page-turning mystery, this is probably NOT the book for you. The writing is stilted, the mystery is baffling (even after it's solved), and it needed an editor (there were a LOT of typographical errors, particularly missed punctuation.) HOWEVER ... if you're looking for a good laugh, this is it!!! The characters are absolutely hilarious ... it's the severe exaggeration of the "sleuth interferes in police business" scenario, and it really made me laugh. So, while not the best writing I've ever read, it was, in the end, an enjoyable read.

[Vicky Elkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I like the idea of the pub that was in Ginger's family for generations . The black widow that was murdered had an interesting back story to her , but there just were lots of characters in the story and they all seemed to hang around the pub and talk and make bets on who did it. The murder was solved by using the computer to get info on people, Not enough out side involvement or action. I'll give the second book a try since I get them through Prime , not a loss if I don't like it. Maybe the story line will pick up some.

[Lisa Hibbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute mystery

In the town of Potter's Mill is as bar called the Grumpy Chicken, where strange things are known to happen. But when Ginger, the pub owner, finds a cat wandering into the bar and brings it back to its owner, she finds the owner dead. Despite warnings from the police not to interfere, Ginger and her ragtag group of customer friends investigate. Cute story, likeable characters, and as few twists to keep the story entertaining. Look forward to more!

[Aubrey Farnsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunted chicken. Well. An Irish pub in Georgia that is haubted by a chicken. That's not even the most colorful part.

Very genuine and quite funny. I feel like I know these characters and their situations. I especailly love the three dudes. Their banter is sincere and natural. The author is very good at kesping herself invisible. She's not trying to be too witty or cater to an audience, and I think that's what makes the humor work so well.

[Agnieszka]

I abandoned this book after forcing myself to continue for the last 75 out of the 100 pages I read.
My main issues were: the many typos, an MC without a backbone and doing what others tell her (even if she tells them first what a bad idea it is) and therefore too busy to manage her family's bar, weak plot and a grumpy chicken ghost that started to destroy all poultry products out of the blue with the start of this book.

[Rhonda Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read in awhile

Oh my goodness!! What can I say I about this book other than it it is fabulous. I totally loved it. I hope she writes a hundred more about like this. I loved the Grumpy Chicken Pub and the clientele that visited it. I love Ginger and her non-meddling meddling into the murder. For a great book that is also a clean read and funny, pick this up you will thoroughly enjoy it

[Sandy Cadwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was fast paced, but as an animal lover, this is not the type of book I read. I cried when Clyde was killed and although I know poaching goes on, I do not want to read about it. I read to relax and although I enjoy mysteries, I prefer they be cozy ones. Light reading. I do like her other books which is why I got this one, but will not continue with the series.

[Ced · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s ok.

The book was fine but it wasn’t a page turner. There were a lot of characters but little character development. I just wasn’t able to get to know any of them so i just never really got drawn into the story at all. I did download the next book when I got this one so I will try again because I already have it.

[Bobbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grumpy Chicken is a place I would love to visit, with or without the ghost. Potters Mill is a charming small town and murder does not sit well with its citizens. Ginger and the gang are a hoot. Together they make such a strange and wonderful gang. The story was funny and entertaining. Hoping to read more books about the Grumpy Chicken Pub.

[Ellen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A case of the pickled egg jar being smashed and a mess now on the floor.
8 Broken jars, the expense, was getting out of hand. Then Ginger finds a dead body.when she goes to Donna, to tell her about her cats and the broken jars. A lot of gossip,at the yarn shop. Several themes are in this new series.

[Ilene G> · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay mystery.

The main mystery was good. The sub-plot mystery was never solved. I liked some of the characters, but there were too many of them. I liked the humor. There were misspellings. There was a missing word in one sentence. If there are others, I cannot recall them.

[Naomi Sechler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder in a small town

Good story wise. However the editing needs to be reviewed. There are a lot of missing words throughout. This makes it hard to remain immersed in the story.

[Sarahanne J Bates · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good at all

So confusing; to much cutesy wording; way to many characters. This is my first book by this author and I barely made it thru half the story before I gave up. Not sure I will try any of her other books

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the Grumpy Chicken in the morning they find the eight jar of pickled eggs broken on the floor. Ginger finds Donna dead when she takes the cat back to her. She and the gang from the Grumpy Chicken decided to help solve the murder.

[Sally Knotwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grumpy Chicken is an Irish Pub in a southern town....and no one's business is safe in town or in the Chicken! It seems everyone in town is trying to solve the current murder. Delightfully intriguing and funny!