In The Case of the Ostentatious Otter by Jeffrey Poole, Zachary Anderson and his girlfriend, Jillian Cooper, take a vacation, along with their friends, Harry and Julie Watt to Monterey, CA. Soon after their arrival, the four humans, plus Zac’s corgi detectives, Sherlock and Watson, go for a walk on the beach, only to discover the body of a diver close to shore. The four humans and two dogs learn that the victim was Jack Carlton, a world- famous diver based out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The six then set out to discover the truth about what turns out to be murder mixed in with stories of pirate treasure.
I enjoyed the storyline of The Case of the Ostentatious Otter even more than I loved many other books in the Corgi Case File series. As in the case with many other books in this series, the author has worked a seemingly minor detail (otters who live in the coastal area) into the plot of the book. In befriending Sherlock and Watson and playing with the two corgis, the otters demonstrate their natural playfulness and endear themselves to listeners. Though the otters named in the title are not the main focus of the audiobook, Poole does a good job this time of making them relevant.
There are some annoying grammatical or stylistic issues in this book. I have been annoyed at the frequent substitution of “my girlfriend” for Jillian. While technically accurate, this word usage sounds really strange and doesn’t really fit most of the time.
Bob Johnson performs the audio edition of this book, as he does for the rest of the series. I really like the way he plays the role of Zac. Since Zac narrates the book itself, it is important to have the audiobook narrator sound like readers would imagine the book’s narrator must sound like, Johnson fits that criteria well. For example, when voicing a bitter teenager, Johnson truly makes the listeners think that they are observing a miserable teen. And Johnson makes Harry sound like a hippy, with his “everything goes” attitude.
It was fun to get to visit with the corgis and their daddy again in The Case of the Ostentatious Otter. I had a good time getting to listen to this audiobook of a delightful book. I highly recommend it and give it five stars.
Disclaimer: I received this audiobook for review purposes, but that had no influence on the content of my review.
