Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781617739606
Kensington Publishing
296 Pages
$7.59; $1.99 Amazon
December 26, 2017
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Daisy, a widowed mom of two teenagers, is used to feeling protective - so when Iris started dating the wealthy and not-quite-divorced Harvey Fitz, she worried...especially after his bitter ex stormed in and caused a scene at the party Daisy's Tea Garden was catering. Then there was the gossip she overhead about Harvey's grown children being cut out of his will. Daisy didn't want her aunt to wind up with a broken heart - but she never expected Iris to wind up a suspect in Harvey's murder.
Now the apple bread and orange pekoe is on the back burner while the cops treat the shop like a crime scene - and Daisy hopes that Jonas Groft, a former detective from Philadelphia, can help her clear her aunt's name and bag the real killer before things boil over...
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After her husband's untimely death, Daisy moved with her two daughters from Florida back to Pennsylvania to open a tea shop with her aunt Iris. With her oldest daughter Violet at college she knows something is bothering her youngest daughter Jazzi but isn't sure what it is. But that has to be on the back burner because she's more worried about Iris, who seems totally in love with a married - but separated - man who owns a mens' clothing store.
She's also hosting his twenty-fifth store anniversary at her shop while going through his divorce. It's not pleasant when his almost ex-wife shows up demanding more from the divorce than he's already given her. When she's escorted out, everything seems to go back to normal. But then Harvey is found dead, and Iris is the main suspect. Now Daisy's determined to prove her aunt innocent, but that means finding a killer - who doesn't want to be found...
Since I've read Ms. Smith's other series and it was fine as far as easy reads go (until the final book, which I felt was too full of unicorns and rainbows) I thought I would give this one a try. Now I wish I'd read something else. The book was all over the place.
First, we're given descriptions of everything people are eating, and honestly, we really don't care. We don't care about the menu the tea room is serving every day. I'm just surprised they don't serve a traditional tea room menu, which certainly doesn't consist of soup or salad. It's things like scones, finger sandwiches. tarts, cakes, etc. - but not soup or salad. In fact, I don't know anyone who has soup and salad with hot tea. It seems very odd to me. Oh, well, to each his own.
Then, the story line seems not to be centered on the murder, but on Daisy's relationship with her daughters. She misses her older daughter and now, for some odd reason, her fifteen-year-old has decided to look for her birth mother. The reasoning didn't make sense to me, and it really took away a lot of time from the murder investigation.
I basically skimmed through the book because the plot line wasn't that interesting. The conversations were rudimentary and it was almost as if the author didn't want the characters to feel any real emotion. It felt as if everyone were just walking through their scenes.
Just like the previous series, this one is more family-based than mystery. What I mean by that is they're written more about the family life of the characters and the mystery seems almost as an afterthought - just something to pass the time while we decide what the family unit is going to do next. This one is no different. If you want a story about a widow with two daughters and her coping with life without her husband, this is for you. If you're looking for a murder mystery you can sink your teeth into, you might want to pass.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Lemon-Daisys-Garden-Mystery/dp/161773960X/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2168656628
More on Karen Rose Smith's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/karen-rose-smith/
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