Marigolds for Malice (An Enchanted Garden Mystery #3)

Author:  Bailey Cattrell
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780451476906
Berkley Publishing
303 Pages
$6.47; $7.99 Amazon
August 28, 2018

⭐⭐

Ellie is happy running her perfume shop, Scents & Nonsense, in the charming town of Poppyville, California.  And she's even happier when she can use her inherited abilities to infuse her perfumes with an extra special something that eases woes or solves problems for her customers.  But she'll need those abilities and more when murder comes to town.

Ellie and her women's business group, the Greenstockings, are helping to open a new museum about local history.  While sorting through the collection of artifacts, they discover a time capsule from the days of the gold rush.  Among the contents is a strange botanical manuscript that local history professor Eureka Sanford believes is extremely rare and valuable.  When the professor is found dead in the museum, Ellie has no choice but to sniff out the intruder...but this one may have roots that are as old as Poppyville.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

This is the third book in the series and I really wanted to like it as well as the first two (although I did like the second one better than the first, I will admit).  But I was turned off completely when I found out what the professor was doing.

First, they find an old butter churn and discover that it's a time capsule from the 1800's.  When, among much fanfare, it contains an old botanical notebook, Ellie finds it's hot to the touch - at least for her.  The rest of the items - a diary page and large gold nugget among them - seem to be just pieces of history.

But the professor who takes charge of everything (save for the nugget which has been removed to the bank) for the museum.  While the botanical notebook haunts her, Ellie goes to see if she can look at it again and finds the professor dead and all the items missing.

Now, of course, Detective Max Lang thinks she's guilty, but Ellie isn't going to sit still while he tries to pin a murder on her.  She's determined to figure out where the notebook is, and who stole it and why...

This book started out well enough, and it was discovered that Ellie's ancestor was the woman in a photo found in the churn.  I thought this could be interesting.  But it wasn't.  It seems the esteemed professor was going to write a book on the photo and the botanical notebook, which would have both belonged to Ellie as the rightful descendant.  And she wasn't going to ask Ellie if it was okay to do so, or include her in the book, or ask for her help.  Basically, she was going to steal the items for her own profit.  I didn't like this one whit, and I didn't feel sorry for her death after that.

I also don't like Max at all.  I get that he's the friend of her ex-husband.  But did he hate her when they were married, too?  Or did he just develop that when they got divorced?  There's no reason at all for his attitude unless he loves her ex-husband Harris and is jealous of her for having been married to him.  He's a character the book could do without.

It disappointed me so much that I didn't much care for the book after that.  And I cared even less for Ellie's "relationship" with Ritter.  Which isn't a relationship at all.  He goes away for work months at a time, only returning while he's waiting to leave again.  He doesn't have any plans to really have a future with her if he's never there.  Just around often enough to make sure she isn't seeing anyone else.  Nope.  No future in that.

These things ended the series for me.  Even if there were any more books, I wouldn't read them.

https://www.amazon.com/Marigolds-Malice-Enchanted-Garden-Mystery/dp/0451476905/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2918984673

More on Bailey Cattrell's Books:

Nightshade for Warning (An Enchanted Garden Mystery #2)

Author:  Bailey Cattrell
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780451476890; 9781494568245
Berkley Publishing
336 Pages
$7.99; $29.99; $7.99
May 2, 2017

✮✮✮✮

Ellie's business and personal life have been flourishing in her hometown of Poppyville, California, since she opened Scents & Nonsense.  She uses her very special skills to craft perfumes that almost magically ease heartache, inspire change, and bring joy - and her customers love to relax in the beautiful garden behind her shop with her corgi, Dash, and her cat, Nabokov.  She even lives right next to the garden, in a compace "tiny house" - and she's excited to hear that a journalist is going to write a feature about her home and garden for a national magazine.

But then the journalist is found dead, and suspicion falls on the last person to see him - who just happens to be Ellie's brother's girlfriend.  So before everything goes to seed, Ellie must rely on her powers - observational and otherwise - to pick out the real killer from an ever-expanding bouquet of culprits...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Ellie owns Scents & Nonsense, a shop that sells oils, lotions, soaps, etc., in Poppyville, California.  She bought it with the money she received from her ex-husband when he bought out her half of the restaurant they owned together.  She's been happily creating personal scents for people, along with allowing them to relax in her Enchanted Garden behind the store - complete with miniature furniture and trees with tiny doors.

She's looking forward to a journalist writing a story about her tiny home (a converted garden shed) behind her shop, and her garden for a magazine.  She's also pleasantly surprised when she spots her brother Colby's van outside her home; and he has a second surprise for her: his girlfriend Lark.

But during a disastrous meeting with Blake Sontag, the writer, during dinner the evening before, Lark has a minor confrontation where she tells Blake he's a 'horrible person' and stomps off.  The next morning Blake doesn't show up for the interview, and it's only when Ellie hears sirens at the hotel that she finds out that Blake isn't coming - he's dead, and from what she can tell of the murder scene, he's been poisoned with Deadly Nightshade, also known as Belladonna.  It's not a nice way to die.

Now the police think that Lark may have committed the murder because she had given Blake an herbal tea to help him sleep, and Colby begs Ellie to help clear her name.  What can she say?  He's her brother, and he's in love with Lark. 

So Ellie starts looking around and finds out that more than one person had a reason to want Blake dead; and she's pretty sure the reason is a parcel of thirty acres that's ripe for development.  Could one of those people be his reclusive sister Joyous, who wanted to sell when Blake didn't?  Or the mysterious Vaughn, who's been seen in the realtor's office?  Or even her ex-husband Harris, who's been seen several times with Vaughn...

I have to say that I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series.  While it's still centered on aromatherapy, you're not so inundated with Ellie looking at every plant in her garden, telling us the meaning and then using that as a guide to what she should do next.  Yes, we still have the lovely garden, and yes, there's still plants and their meanings; but this book is more centered on the murder, which is what a mystery should do.

While Ritter, Ellie's boyfriend, is missing in this second in the series (he's off on his own job in Alaska and won't be back for several months), she's being almost-pursued by a genial photographer who's in town to help with the story of her tiny home, so we don't really have a progression of their still-new relationship to each other, although it seems to be committed so far.

I like the fact that while Ellie investigates she's never pushy with people.  She doesn't peek in windows or break into buildings, and that's a plus.  It shows she has intelligence, and that's always a good sign in a mystery.  She's not weak-willed nor mealy-mouthed around men, even Detective Lang (as she was in the first).  Ellie's growing up, and that's a good thing.

When we finally find out the killer, and the reason why, it's as old as time itself, but still quite a surprise, and one I don't think anyone would suspect.  I found it to be an easy read and quite enjoyable indeed.  As of right now, I don't see a third book in the offing, but since the author also has another series she's penning, that could still be yet to come.  I certainly hope so.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Nightshade-Warning-Enchanted-Garden-Mystery/dp/0451476891/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2190136033

More on Bailey Cattrell's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/bailey-cattrell/

Daisies for Innocence (An Enchanted Garden Mystery #1)

Author:  Bailey Cattrell
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780451476883; 9781494568238
Berkley Publishing
336 Pages
$7.19; $23.13; $7.99 Amazon
January 5, 2016

✮✮✮

The Enchanted Garden behind Elliana Allbright's perfume shop draws people of all ages with its fragrant flowers and lush greenery.  But when the magical serenity is interrupted, it's up to Ellie to sniff out a killer.

Ellie's life has blossomed in Poppyville, California, since she opened Scents & Nonsense, a custom-made-perfume store.  Her skills with aromas and botanical essences - some from her very own garden - seem almost...supernatural.  Her perfumes can evoke emotions, bring about change, or simply make people happy.  Customers are flocking to the store to buy her wares or just to sit in her beautiful garden, sip tea and enjoy homemade cookies. 

But she smells trouble when she learns that her part-time assistant Josie is dating her ex.  And before she can tell the young woman to beware of his charms, she finds Josie dead in the Enchanted Garden.  Now the prime suspect in Josie's murder, Ellie must search for the real culprit in Josie's past - because it'll take a miracle to nip this problem in the bud...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Elliana Allbright owns a shop that makes perfumes, soaps, body lotions, etc., in the town of Poppyville, California.  She opened it after a messy divorce from her husband Harris; one in which he kept the restaurant they owned together and bought her out.  She has a part-time employee named Josie, and one day she tells Ellie that she's been dating Harris and asks if it's a problem.  Ellie assures her it isn't, Ellie leaves to run some errands and leaves Josie handling the shop.

She doesn't see Josie again that day, and the next morning her little Corgi Dash goes outside and won't stop barking.  Ellie follows, and finds Josie's body just outside the gate to her Enchanted Garden which is in the back of her shop.  She calls the police and is questioned.  Detective Lang, a friend of her ex-husband Harris, is convinced she murdered Josie out of jealousy; convinced because Harris told him Ellie was extremely jealous and probably did it.

Since he's not looking elsewhere, she figures it's up to her to find out who the killer is.  At least his partner, Detective Lupe Garcia, is rational and helpful, which gives her hope.  When Garcia tells her that it appears Josie was stabbed in the park, but died in the garden, you'd think Lang would realize that it wasn't her fault, but he doesn't.  So Ellie starts doing what she can to find out who would want Josie dead, and hopes to find out before Lang puts her behind bars for life...

I really liked the title of the book and the fact of the garden in the back, filled with plants that Ellie uses to make her concoctions.  A lot of the book was good, but then there was the taint of Detective Lang...(To see a spoiler on my thoughts about Lang, please see my review on Goodreads).

While the plot was decent, there wasn't really a lot of alternative suspects.  No one stood out, and nearly everyone was nice.  Those that weren't all seemed to have alibis the night Josie was killed.  I didn't feel that we were given enough clues to get close to finding the killer ourselves (and isn't that why we read mysteries?)  It was as if people were there, and then discarded along the way - no one was really questioned by Ellie, she just observed them, or pretty much said hi - in other words, they wouldn't have been viable suspects anyway.

This is a light-hearted read and a decent start to a new series.  I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on character development and perhaps a little less on the power of aromatherapy.  I didn't get the feeling of knowing any of the characters, but perhaps that will be remedied in the next book in the series.  A cute cozy mystery for a lazy evening.

https://www.amazon.com/Daisies-Innocence-Enchanted-Garden-Mystery/dp/0451476883/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2185549227

More on Bailey Cantrell's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/bailey-cattrell/