Fun cozy that needed to be longer. ( )

This was a fun book to listen to. I enjoyed the characters but I love snark and drama when I’m not living it. I thought the story was hilarious. I like Di and Mary but honestly, Moo steals the show. I never thought about a series location being at a range. What could go wrong at a range? An archery range at that? Murder. Murder could go wrong. The story is a fast listen and does a good job introducing the series.
The author did the narration on this. I’m not a big lover of authors narrating their books. However Nikki Haverstock did a good job. I think, because of the number of characters and the snarky drama, having a couple narrators would have been more enjoyable. But the author didn’t stumble,mumble, or bore me as others have. She was easy to listen to.
I recommend the audio version as well as the book. I had an enjoyable morning listening to it. ( )

I thought it was interesting to have a series set in the world of competitive shooting sports. This was a good first effort. I enjoyed learning about archery. I'm still not sure what made Di give it up after college, but perhaps we will learn that in a future book in the series. I liked Moo! I would read more in this series. ( )

Death on the Range by Nikki Haverstock is the first book in the Target Practice Mystery series. Diana (prefers Di) is getting a divorce. She decided to start fresh with a new job in a new state. She accepted the position as the tech person for Westmound Center for Competitive Shooting (archery and guns) in Wyoming. Her friend, Jess and her husband, Robbie work there and helped Di get the position. Her first day Di meets Mary Van Dyke. She is from Korea but was adopted and raised in Minnesota. Mary is also working at the center (kind of a Jill of all trades) and she is also very good at archery. Di also met Moo, the Westmound dog. He belongs to Liam “Lumberjack” Andersson, but Moo rooms the complex (or horseshoe as they call it) during the day. Moo takes to spending his days with Di.

They are starting a new archery coaching program. There are new archery standards and all coaches have to take a class to learn the proper methods. The first class includes four members of the Olympic Summer Games archery team. They are Tiger, Minx, Honey, and Owley. The four of them do not seem to be getting along very well. They is contention among the troops as soon as they arrive. Honey (the diva) announces that she is writing a memoir of her life and is planning to include juicy gossip from those in the field of archery. That evening Di is unable to sleep and goes into the complex to run. She enters the weight room and notices Heidi on the floor (shocker)! Di screams and panics. Liam finds her and calms her down so he can contact the police.

Mary and Di (when she finally gets over her shock) decide to investigate the murder. They want to protect the reputation of the center for Jess (who is upset that her new programs are ruined when they have just begun). Mary and Di stumble and bumble along looking at the clues and interviewing the suspects. Death on the Range is a very short story (about half the length of a normal cozy). The characters are very basic and underdeveloped (we do not even get last names to 90% of the main characters). We get a little more information on Di and Mary towards the end of the book (after they have been drinking). The murder is extremely simple and easy to solve. I really only liked two of the characters in the book: Liam and Moo. They were the most likable (especially the dog). I felt that the novel was rushed. I think we were given more information on the Westmound Center than on the characters. I give Death on the Range 3 out of 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of Death on the Range from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own. ( )

Debut short story that hit a bullseye!

Wyoming is an interesting site to locate a huge training facility for archers and shooters with Olympic potential and goals. This was a fun read though not a very long one with about 80 pages total. It introduced characters that might be suspects or end up together in the future. The story lay groundwork for future interactions and solved a murder. It might have been fleshed out a bit more but each new author has to find their own pace and way of presenting their stories. As an introduction to a series it has great potential. I don’t see a lot of murders taking place on site BUT with archers and shooters traveling to various locals, coaches providing tutelage and such…more murders and mysteries could present themselves and romance might occur. I loved Moo, the Great Dane, and found he added a fun element to the story. Another likable bit was that the revealing of issues in some of the characters’ lives did not occur till nearly the end…and I have a feeling there are more life issues of other characters that might be revealed in future episodes.

I wish the author well and hope to see her name and her books in the future and would like to thank her for the copy of this book to read and review! ( )