Flowers and Foul Play (A Magic Garden Mystery #1)

Author:  Amanda Flower
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; MP3 CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781683315629; 9781683317753; 9781978642683
Crooked Lane Books
336 Pages
$16.86; $10.99; $14.99; $1.99; Amazon
May 8, 2018 (October 9, 2018 TP)

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Florist Fiona Fox's life isn't smelling so sweet these days.  Her fiancé left her for their cake decorator.  Then, her flower shop wilted after a chain florist opened next door.  So when her godfather, Ian MacCallister, leaves her a cottage in Scotland, Fiona jumps on the next plane to Edinburgh.  Ian, after all, is the one who taught her to love flowers.  but when Ian's elderly caretaker Hamish MacGregor shows her to the cottage upon her arrival, she finds the once resplendent grounds of Duncreigan in a dreadful shambles - with a dead body in the garden,

Minutes into her arrival, Fiona is already being questioned by the handsome Chief Inspector Neil Craig and getting her passport seized.  But it's Craig's fixation on Uncle Ian's loyal caretaker, Hamish, as a prime suspect, that really makes her worried.  As Fiona strolls the town, she quickly realizes there are a whole bouquet of suspects much more likely to have killed Alastair Croft, the dead lawyer who seems to have had more enemies than friends.  Now it's up to Fiona to clear Hamish's name before it's too late.

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Fiona Knox is heartbroken at learning that her godfather, whom she called Uncle Ian, has just died.  She's just arrived in Scotland because she's discovered that he's left her everything he owns, including his small cottage and the walled garden behind it.

When she arrives at the cottage the elderly caretaker, Hamish MacGregor, meets her and takes her to the garden.  She's dismayed that the garden is apparently dead, but Hamish informs her that now that she's here, the garden will live again.  Looking around, Fiona thinks him deluded.  Looking around even more, she sees a yellow rose twining around a stone, and Hamish tells her that it's beginning to show signs of life once more...but maybe not so much as she soon sees a boot..a foot...and a dead body. 

When it's determined that the dead man is Alistair Croft, her godfather's solicitor, everyone is wondering how he got into the garden since it's kept locked and Hamish tells Fiona that he gave her the only key.  But when all signs point to the fact that Hamish might be guilty of the crime, Fiona decides that Chief Inspector Neil Craig has the wrong person, and she's going to find the right one before Hamish is arrested for a crime he didn't commit...

I really liked the premise of this book - a magical garden in Scotland - which is why I wanted to read it.  I did think at first that it had a rocky beginning; I understood about her fiancé dumping her and Fiona wanting to abruptly leave; but I really didn't find it believable that a flower shop would open right across the street from another one.  Why would you actually set out to put someone out of business, especially in a large city like Nashville where there must have been plenty of locations they could have opened in?

Nevertheless, I kept reading, and I have to say that I enjoyed the rest of the book.  I found only a few errata that should have been caught by the publisher (unfortunately, I notice details): using phased instead of fazed, mantle instead of mantel; and in the same chapter Fiona says, ..."or took it from her after he was dead" when it was most obviously supposed to be him.  I imagine this particular chapter was proofread by a newbie, but hey...

I'm still on the fence about Fiona, though: on the one hand she seems to be levelheaded and her questioning isn't really invasive; she knows when to pull back and not harass people (except for one instance where she deliberately corners Seth) to the point that they sidestep around if they see her coming; but I also didn't care for the fact that she's trying so hard to be defensive to Inspector Craig.  She keeps insisting she doesn't need help (she sometimes does), and for some odd reason she gets upset when he actually holds a door open for her.  What idiotic woman would get upset that a man wants to treat her like a lady?

Although I was clued in quite quickly on something that never actually came to fruition in this book, but I imagine it will be touched upon in the next:  After hearing about the letter Fiona was supposed to receive but didn't, I knew right away why Ian left her everything and why the garden came to life for her after her godfather died.  You'd have to be pretty dense not to figure it out, especially after she questioned Hamish about her Uncle Ian being in love and his response was "Choices were made."  At least it wasn't a cliffhanger, because I absolutely detest them.  I call it 'holding the reader hostage'.

Anyway, for the most part, the mystery was done very well, with enough suspects and a few red herrings thrown about here and there.  I really did like how the garden tied in to everything that was happening around Fiona, but how she, quite rightly, didn't want to accept the power it had over her; and how, throughout the book she began to accept the fact that everything Hamish told her was the truth.  I also liked how the people in the village respected Ian and transferred that to her and were willing to accept her into their tight-knit community - all with the exception of the local minister, but I found it odd why he never explained his reasons for not liking her nor Ian. 

All in all, when the murderer was discovered and the reasons behind it, it came as a surprise, yet it all came together nicely and I enjoyed the ending very well.  This is the first book in the series, an easy read, and I will read the next, hoping to discover if my suspicions are correct (and maybe also find out why the minister hates her while never having seen her before she appeared in their little village).  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Flowers-Foul-Play-Garden-Mystery/dp/1683315626/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2798025252

More on Amanda Flower's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/amanda-flower/