Young Viva is a Nancy Drew-style sleuth for the modern era. Well done! ( )

3.5* for the story but the audiobook quality was unexpectedly poor for an Audible production. The volume would suddenly change & some sections sounded as if they had been recorded from the far side of a large room (sort of hollow). ( )

Pausing @ 15% in. I think I might DNF this one because the song got annoying and I don't want to listen to it anymore. However, I'm not positive that I want to give up on it yet because the story is cute. We'll see. I do know that I'm not in the mood to listen to it right now.

3.5* for the story but the audiobook quality was unexpectedly poor for an Audible production. The volume would suddenly change & some sections sounded as if they had been recorded from the far side of a large room (sort of hollow). ( )

Fun Children's/YA Jazz/New Orleans-Themed Mystery
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (2019)

This was an extremely well done children's/young adult mystery by jazz performer / music educator Ashli St. Armant (who sings under the stage name of Jazzy Ash). It had a fun story line and an excellent audio production with incidental music, presumably by Jazzy Ash herself and her band the Leaping Lizards.

The story has 14-year-old Viva Durant spending a summer vacation with her grandmother in New Orleans. While there, she begins to investigate a mystery built around the traditional children's clapping song Mary Mack (the subject of the song is turned into a fictitious jazz singer for this plot).

Real life elements and historical jazz figures of New Orleans were mentioned throughout the plot as well so that helps to make it an educational feature for young music students. The wrap-up to the story left it open for a possible sequel and hopefully Ashli St. Armant will continue with this side-line to her music career.

The narration by Bahni Turpin was excellent in all voices, although I assume the occasional singing parts were done by Ashli St. Armant.

Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons was one of the free Audible Originals for members in November 2019.

Trivia and Links
Jazzy Ash's website includes a recipe for making beignets at http://www.jazzyash.com/let-s-make-beignets.html
Hear/see Jazzy Ash sing "Mary Mack" at this YouTube video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfvVjfwyxAw ( )