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Connor Westphal #1
Dead Body Language
Thirty-seven year old journalist, Connor Westphal, has relocated from San Francisco to Flat Skunk, a mining-turned-tourist town in the foothills of the Sierras, to start up her own weekly paper. Suddenly, dead bodies begin turning up in the most unusual places, setting Connor on a hunt for a killer. You might say Connor has a sixth sense when it comes to investigating...but she only has four of the usual five senses. Connor Westphal is deaf. But being hearing impaired doesn't stop Connor from pursuing the murderer. Without sound to distract her, she attends to subtleties that others overlook and ultimately unravels the mystery.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
16 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Penny Warner
140 books128 followersPenny Warner is an award-winning author of over sixty books, including DEAD BODY LANGUAGE mystery series (Macavity winner), HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY series, and the upcoming Food Festival series. Her middle-grade mystery, THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB, won the Agatha Award for Best Children's Mystery.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 24, 2020
Connor Westphal has moved from San Francisco to the town of Flat Skunk in California’s gold country, where she is running the weekly paper she inherited from her grandparents. When Lacy Penzance comes in to place an ad to track down her long-lost sister, Connor readily agrees. Then Lacy takes back her ad. The next morning, Lacy is found dead. The sheriff doesn’t think it is the suicide it was staged to look like. Under the guise of writing an article about Lacy, Connor begins to investigate. Will she find the killer?
What I haven’t mentioned so far is that Connor is deaf. I found this character trait to be an interesting addition to the mystery, and it really added suspense to the climax. Connor is an all-around strong character, and I enjoyed getting to meet her friends here as well. The plot is strong, although I have a couple niggles about who the killer turned out to be. Even so, I have to admire the strong plotting; I missed several major clues. I did find there to be a few more four-letter words than I was expecting, and I think there were timeline issues, although I might have added an extra day in there somewhere as I was reading. I originally read this book close to when it was originally released in 1997, but I never read the rest of the series. I’m looking forward to fixing that soon.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
What I haven’t mentioned so far is that Connor is deaf. I found this character trait to be an interesting addition to the mystery, and it really added suspense to the climax. Connor is an all-around strong character, and I enjoyed getting to meet her friends here as well. The plot is strong, although I have a couple niggles about who the killer turned out to be. Even so, I have to admire the strong plotting; I missed several major clues. I did find there to be a few more four-letter words than I was expecting, and I think there were timeline issues, although I might have added an extra day in there somewhere as I was reading. I originally read this book close to when it was originally released in 1997, but I never read the rest of the series. I’m looking forward to fixing that soon.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
June 28, 2022
Connor Westphal has traded her stressful life in San Francisco for a slower pace in Gold Rush country. A local doyenne approaches her to take out an ad in the weekly newspaper, but is mysteriously killed before anything can happen. Despite being deaf, Connor pokes around. Her office neighbor goes missing, there's another death, and a handsome galoot shows up.
A well constructed mystery. It's too bad Penny Warner doesn't seem to be writing much anymore.
A well constructed mystery. It's too bad Penny Warner doesn't seem to be writing much anymore.
January 19, 2020
Music is so invisible to me. I try to make shapes and colors out of it, but it's not easy. It's a puzzle, elusive, and yet I know it's there because other people react to it. They dance. They sing. Their moods change all of a sudden. To me, the answer to this puzzle was kind of like music. I knew it was there, but I just couldn't hear it. Because I can't hear things, I try to figure out solutions in other ways. I try to see it, taste it, smell it, touch it. And finally, I'm able, in my own way, to hear it.
November 2, 2017
Not a bad read on the whole. I guess the fact that Connor is deaf is supposed to give a her uniqueness from the usual amateur sleuth but to be honest, because she speaks normally & can lip read so well, her handicap in some ways seems unnecessary as she comes over "normal" most of the time -I hope that doesn't sound offensive, can't explain it any other way! I'd probably read another in the series should I happen across one but won't bother actively looking for more.
July 13, 2010
Not a bad book but I had trouble accepting that Connor Westphall was able to do all she could do in the book. I was particularly troubled that Connor endlessly explains how difficult and inaccurate lipreading is (and I know this to be true), yet she makes her way in the hearing world by relying on lipreading with little error or comment. Not realistic.
September 1, 2018
Connor Westphal moved recently to a small town called Flat Skunk. Her grandparents had a diner there and she decided to change her life and move there, after their deaths. Connor became deaf when she was four years old and while the world around her, especially the school for hearing which she attended, tried to box her in, she made her own way and became a journalist. Now, she runs the town’s weekly newspaper Eureka! She employs the sheriff’s young son Miah part-time. Miah learned sign language so he sometimes interpreters for her and also answers the phone and does other errands.
The former mayor’s widow Lacy wants Connor to run an ad on the paper about her missing sister. Lacy doesn’t want the ad to be traced back to her and acts pretty mysterious otherwise, too. However, the next morning Lacy is found dead on her husband’s grave. Also, the local private investigator Boone has gone missing and his supposed half-brother Dan has suddenly appeared. Connor loves mysteries (she writes a murder mystery puzzle for her paper every week) and she starts to investigate.
This is a fast-paced mystery with quite a large, small town cast of characters. It has plenty of turns and twists and kept me guessing almost to the end.
Connor is a very interesting main character. She’s learned to lipread but has to, of course, see the lips clearly to do that. For the most part, she reads lips so accurately that the dialog isn’t any different from any other book. No doubt this is a stylistic issue because otherwise readers would have quickly become frustrated with dialog where Connor is guessing half the words and often asking “what did you say”. Of course, she can’t hear other noises, like the phone ringing. She’s very determined and uses underhanded tactics to interview people. She even has printed out fake business cards and easily clams to be an insurance agent, for example. She used to be a journalist in San Francisco. She’s on very good terms with the local sheriff and almost-dating the deputy and she isn’t shy to pump every bit of info she can from them.
The cast of characters, and therefore the pool of suspects, is quite large so we don’t get to know most of them. Dan, the missing investigator’s half-brother, is probably the most significant of them. He’s handsome and immediately likes Connor. He appears mysteriously right when his brother goes missing and Boone has never mentioned him, so Dan is a suspect, but he also investigates along with Connor.
The only thing which really bothered me was the way Connor treated her dog. She has a husky whom she’s taught to answer to signs, but she never takes it with her: it’s alone all day and Conner just feeds it. In fact, she treats it like a cat, even though she claims not to like cats. Since she’s her own boss, she could have easily taken the dog to work with her.
I enjoyed learning a little about the deaf. Connor has a touchtype phone which she uses to type calls but the other person needs to have one, too, otherwise it doesn’t work. People also throw things near her or at her to get her attention which I think is rather rude but she herself confesses that she hasn’t thought of a better way.
A quick read and a nice mystery with a lot of twists.
The former mayor’s widow Lacy wants Connor to run an ad on the paper about her missing sister. Lacy doesn’t want the ad to be traced back to her and acts pretty mysterious otherwise, too. However, the next morning Lacy is found dead on her husband’s grave. Also, the local private investigator Boone has gone missing and his supposed half-brother Dan has suddenly appeared. Connor loves mysteries (she writes a murder mystery puzzle for her paper every week) and she starts to investigate.
This is a fast-paced mystery with quite a large, small town cast of characters. It has plenty of turns and twists and kept me guessing almost to the end.
Connor is a very interesting main character. She’s learned to lipread but has to, of course, see the lips clearly to do that. For the most part, she reads lips so accurately that the dialog isn’t any different from any other book. No doubt this is a stylistic issue because otherwise readers would have quickly become frustrated with dialog where Connor is guessing half the words and often asking “what did you say”. Of course, she can’t hear other noises, like the phone ringing. She’s very determined and uses underhanded tactics to interview people. She even has printed out fake business cards and easily clams to be an insurance agent, for example. She used to be a journalist in San Francisco. She’s on very good terms with the local sheriff and almost-dating the deputy and she isn’t shy to pump every bit of info she can from them.
The cast of characters, and therefore the pool of suspects, is quite large so we don’t get to know most of them. Dan, the missing investigator’s half-brother, is probably the most significant of them. He’s handsome and immediately likes Connor. He appears mysteriously right when his brother goes missing and Boone has never mentioned him, so Dan is a suspect, but he also investigates along with Connor.
The only thing which really bothered me was the way Connor treated her dog. She has a husky whom she’s taught to answer to signs, but she never takes it with her: it’s alone all day and Conner just feeds it. In fact, she treats it like a cat, even though she claims not to like cats. Since she’s her own boss, she could have easily taken the dog to work with her.
I enjoyed learning a little about the deaf. Connor has a touchtype phone which she uses to type calls but the other person needs to have one, too, otherwise it doesn’t work. People also throw things near her or at her to get her attention which I think is rather rude but she herself confesses that she hasn’t thought of a better way.
A quick read and a nice mystery with a lot of twists.
June 3, 2018
More like 3.5* I have never read a fiction book where the main character had a disability, but having a deaf main character added a twist to solving the mystery. I took sign language in college and had to try to live as a person with a hearing disability for an assignment, but it was so long ago I forgot how profound that experience was. This book brought that back. It reminded me of how hearing focused our world is, and how challenging it can be for people who can't hear. That being said, I enjoyed this book. When I started reading I thought Connor was a boy; I've never met a female Connor! Once I got that confusion cleared up, I enjoyed the story much more. I was surprised that Mickey was the killer, but his confession... wow! The motive was spectacular. He genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. I thought the grave robbing part of the story was not developed enough or could have been left out all together. Otherwise, this was a great mystery. I will definitely be reading more from this series!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2007
This first book in a series is unique in that the main protagonist/sleuth is deaf. I really enjoy mysteries where the main character has something unusual about them, such as Connor’s deafness. I always feel as though I learn something and it gives a bit of uniqueness to a mystery. When one reads as many mysteries as I do, the ones that don’t have something special about them all end up merging into one another in my mind. I’ve read the first two in the series and haven’t read the others only because there’s so much else to read, including other mystery authors I haven’t yet read. I do recommend them, even though they’re not my very favorites.
April 23, 2011
met this writer at the Santa Fe mystery conference. Very funny woman....had us all laughing when she was on a panel. This heroine, Connor Westphal, is a journalist and is deaf which adds something different to the story, moved from San Fran to a gold rush town in CA. Her great grandparents owned a diner there during the gold rush so she decided to take it over. She fixed it up to live in...so far it's not a diner. She gets involved in a murder, meets some great characters, I liked the book.
January 14, 2021
Connor Westphal is a deaf woman who left the city to run a small-town newspaper in California's Gold Country. She gets caught up events in town as the deaths mount up.
Connor appears to use lipreading most of the time, though even though she admits the that lipreading is only about 50% effective at most, she sure seems to be pretty damn good at it (a few times, the author lampshades it by pointing out that the dialogue is mostly good guesses from Connor, but even so).
The mystery itself was interesting, and I should've suspected the culprit much sooner than I did, with some good red herrings. Connor was a pretty fun protagonist, though you have the usual "Why is she getting involved again?" aspect that many cozy mysteries do. The lipreading thing still gets me, though, as I imagined myself in her situations, and I can hardly fathom it (I'm deaf, too).
One last thing to note: This book was originally written in 1997, but the author clearly attempted to update/rewrite it when it was published as an ebook in 2012 (I can tell because things like Skype and FaceTime and Taylor Swift were mentioned). However, Connor never uses anything like that and most of the technology is clearly used like it is in the 1990s still (she only seems to text a couple times, but usually she's using a TTY device--and an employee of hers edits a tape at one point, instead of referencing CDs or MP3s). Another character is referenced as having been in the Vietnam War, and since he's ten years older than another character, that would've meant that both characters were far older than they were indicated to be in this book. Please, authors, don't do this. I would much rather read a book that took place in a specific time than an updated mess like this.
Connor appears to use lipreading most of the time, though even though she admits the that lipreading is only about 50% effective at most, she sure seems to be pretty damn good at it (a few times, the author lampshades it by pointing out that the dialogue is mostly good guesses from Connor, but even so).
The mystery itself was interesting, and I should've suspected the culprit much sooner than I did, with some good red herrings. Connor was a pretty fun protagonist, though you have the usual "Why is she getting involved again?" aspect that many cozy mysteries do. The lipreading thing still gets me, though, as I imagined myself in her situations, and I can hardly fathom it (I'm deaf, too).
One last thing to note: This book was originally written in 1997, but the author clearly attempted to update/rewrite it when it was published as an ebook in 2012 (I can tell because things like Skype and FaceTime and Taylor Swift were mentioned). However, Connor never uses anything like that and most of the technology is clearly used like it is in the 1990s still (she only seems to text a couple times, but usually she's using a TTY device--and an employee of hers edits a tape at one point, instead of referencing CDs or MP3s). Another character is referenced as having been in the Vietnam War, and since he's ten years older than another character, that would've meant that both characters were far older than they were indicated to be in this book. Please, authors, don't do this. I would much rather read a book that took place in a specific time than an updated mess like this.
June 13, 2024
CW for SA and Spoilers:
I originally gave this book 3 stars. It was pretty average murder mystery that felt targeted to the older YA market. I was essentially forced to read it for an ASL class. The protagonist was adorkable but probably works for younger readers. But some main issues:
1. The exposition was wild for this book. It took like 57 pages to get going.
2. The editing was terrible. Random characters added, letters changed because two letters were close together.
3. Despite trying to update pieces to the new 2012 version, it felt very much like 90s copaganda. The characters felt sympathetic to the murderer because of all of these gosh darn pro-crime laws and cops are tied up with so many restrictions.
4. After recovering from the copaganda, the most egregious piece was rape mythology. Someone's backstory involves helping a guy who was falsely accused of raping the police chief's daughter. The character telling the story said that the daughter told this story about 6 other men. "She used this rape scam.... apparently part of her foreplay." I'm sorry but this is irresponsible writing and the author should know better.
I originally gave this book 3 stars. It was pretty average murder mystery that felt targeted to the older YA market. I was essentially forced to read it for an ASL class. The protagonist was adorkable but probably works for younger readers. But some main issues:
1. The exposition was wild for this book. It took like 57 pages to get going.
2. The editing was terrible. Random characters added, letters changed because two letters were close together.
3. Despite trying to update pieces to the new 2012 version, it felt very much like 90s copaganda. The characters felt sympathetic to the murderer because of all of these gosh darn pro-crime laws and cops are tied up with so many restrictions.
4. After recovering from the copaganda, the most egregious piece was rape mythology. Someone's backstory involves helping a guy who was falsely accused of raping the police chief's daughter. The character telling the story said that the daughter told this story about 6 other men. "She used this rape scam.... apparently part of her foreplay." I'm sorry but this is irresponsible writing and the author should know better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2022
A different take on the usual cozy mystery protagonist. This one is deaf. And, I loved her! Many of the scrapes she got into were punctuated by the fact that, although she read lips, she did not get all of the conversation due to mustaches, food (or other objects in the speaker's mouth) or the fact that the speaker was not totally facing her.
Still Connor was brave, daring, and not exactly sure who she could trust. And those were qualities that endeared her to me.
The there was Dan, who was supposedly a brother of the PI across the hall; Miah, the teen who ran a comic store and helped her out with the newspaper Connor ran; the local sheriff, and a cast of other characters...some good, some shady.
Loved this slightly skewed take on the cozy mystery genre. I will be wanting to read more of Connor's escapades.
Still Connor was brave, daring, and not exactly sure who she could trust. And those were qualities that endeared her to me.
The there was Dan, who was supposedly a brother of the PI across the hall; Miah, the teen who ran a comic store and helped her out with the newspaper Connor ran; the local sheriff, and a cast of other characters...some good, some shady.
Loved this slightly skewed take on the cozy mystery genre. I will be wanting to read more of Connor's escapades.
February 17, 2022
Barry Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (1998), Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel (1998), Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1997)
This was a great mystery! Great characters, lots of suspects, location and the lead character is the deft owner of a 2 person newspaper (Gives her reason to ask questions & get involved).
I don't think this can be called a cozy mystery (Good Reads listed it as such). There were a few strong words in the book but didn't bother me!
280 Pages and 1st book in the series! Check it out, David N.
This was a great mystery! Great characters, lots of suspects, location and the lead character is the deft owner of a 2 person newspaper (Gives her reason to ask questions & get involved).
I don't think this can be called a cozy mystery (Good Reads listed it as such). There were a few strong words in the book but didn't bother me!
280 Pages and 1st book in the series! Check it out, David N.
February 1, 2021
Decided to read this because it is set in the Mother Lode area where I had lived for many years. But now I know, I discovered a new author that writes books I like to read. Looking forward to the next one. Love that the heroine is deaf and you learn how she can adapt and solve the mystery. I did not have a clue who was the murder until the end.
July 4, 2021
Cozy mystery featuring Connor Westphal, a deaf reporter/publisher running a weekly paper in gold country California. Lots going on here for Connor to investigate as murder keeps piling upon murder and she needs to find the connection.
Easy flow and I liked Connor. Overall a fun and engaging read, though there is need for some editing as there are some typos and macros that keep appearing.
Easy flow and I liked Connor. Overall a fun and engaging read, though there is need for some editing as there are some typos and macros that keep appearing.
January 14, 2018
This was actually a really good mystery! I did not suspect the culprit at all. I wasn't crazy about the story itself but how the author writes a mystery was quite impressive but as with any mystery, looking back I am wondering how I missed it, lol.
February 20, 2022
Not an amazing story but the deaf character is pretty spot on. It was good enough to read the next in the series. Oh, and the author apparently lives and works in the area that we were last living in California. It feels like I'm supporting a local.
September 30, 2017
I really enjoyed this series and already went out to buy two more.
August 5, 2019
Great book!
Want to read
November 22, 2019Synopsis: deaf journalist Westphal has relocated to Flat Skunk in the foothills of the Sierras to start a weekly. Suddenly, dead bodies turn up.
September 25, 2016
You would think that a deaf woman might be at a distinct disadvantage when a crime lands in her lap. And in some respects Connor Westphal is. But in other ways her ability to notice things and read people's attitudes serves her in good stead. A fun, competently written mystery with an engaging protagonist. I promptly went in search of the sequels, of which there are several.
January 19, 2017
A little while ago, I got really weary of the lack of deaf representation in the books I read so I decided to actively look for novels with a deaf character or even gasp! a deaf protagonist. That's how I came to find the Connor Westphal series, a series of cozy mysteries with a plucky deaf heroine.
Now I already knew I'm not the biggest fan of this genre but I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns of this particular intrigue and, more pertinently as this is what I was looking for, there were definitely some relatable deaf moments which were akin to delicious sips of fresh water after a long walk in the desert.
It's not perfect by any means, for instance, Connor's speechreading ability seems downright superhuman at times (though that's fiction for you!) and there's the matter of Casper the service dog who just spends all his time at home... Alone. Why? That was just baffling!
All in all, I enjoyed it and I'll be sure to pick up the second book in the series.
Now I already knew I'm not the biggest fan of this genre but I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns of this particular intrigue and, more pertinently as this is what I was looking for, there were definitely some relatable deaf moments which were akin to delicious sips of fresh water after a long walk in the desert.
It's not perfect by any means, for instance, Connor's speechreading ability seems downright superhuman at times (though that's fiction for you!) and there's the matter of Casper the service dog who just spends all his time at home... Alone. Why? That was just baffling!
All in all, I enjoyed it and I'll be sure to pick up the second book in the series.
June 7, 2012
Fabulous mystery. Lots of red herrings and potential suspects. Will keep you guessing. Warning: whoever converted it to Kindle should be shot. Random font changes from normal to need-a-microscope. The justification occasionally shifts to centered and stays that way. Full chapters are italicizes for no reason. If the story weren't so engaging I never would have finished it. Though I still think amazon owes me my money back for the formatting. It was atrocious!
November 3, 2008
DEAD BODY LANGUAGE - NR
Warner, Penny - 1st Connor Westphal
Newly arrived in a mining town in the Sierras to start up her own newspaper, journalist Connor Westphal finds herself investigating when dead bodies begin turning up in strange places.
The protagonist was just too cute to stand and every chapter end is a minor cliffhanger.
Warner, Penny - 1st Connor Westphal
Newly arrived in a mining town in the Sierras to start up her own newspaper, journalist Connor Westphal finds herself investigating when dead bodies begin turning up in strange places.
The protagonist was just too cute to stand and every chapter end is a minor cliffhanger.
April 1, 2012
This is part of the seven-title Connor Westphal series, which is set in N. California mining country, featuring a deaf reporter who inherited the local newspaper. (For more information: www.pennywarner.com)
January 16, 2011
Very witty writing the main character is deaf and it adds a whole different dimension of humor. The plot kept me interested I couldn't figure out who done it. I really enjoyed this.
March 31, 2011
odd inconsistencies, did not really grab and hold interest
September 8, 2011
Different with a deaf sleuth, who is a newspaper reporter! More information than I wanted on the preparing a body for burial. Good ending!
January 8, 2013
Engaging story line. Read as ebook on my phone and there were a number of technical issues.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews