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/

Bloom and Doom

Author:  Beverly Allen
Genre:  Mystery

Two Stars

 

As the co-owner of the Rose in Bloom, Audrey Bloom creates magnificent flower arrangements for brides to be.  Though helping to plan a wedding can be stressful, it's nothing compared to the groom turning up dead.

 

A designer of eye-catching bridal bouquets-many of them based on the Victorian meanings behind each flower-Audrey Bloom is used to celebrations that end with happily ever after.  In fact, every couple she's worked with is still together, living in wedded bliss.  But her perfect record is about to be broken,

 

Her childhood friend Jenny Whitney has reeled in the most eligible bachelor in Ramble, Virginia, and she's hired Audrey to design the bouquet.  But before Jenny can walk down the aisle clutching her blend of anemone, scabious, and pussy willow (a floral disaster in Audrey's mind), the groom is found dead-sprinkled with bits of a bouquet.  This is bad for business-not to mention for Jenny, who has become the prime suspect.  So Audrey decides to do a little digging herself, hoping she won't be the next Ramble resident pushing up daisies...

 

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Okay, so the blurb pretty much tells you what the book is about.  But there were so many things wrong with it that I had a hard time finding what was right.  Please don't believe I am attacking the author at all - I would never do that and I am sure Ms. Allen tried really hard to make this a good book.  But the fact is: it isn't. 

 

As stated above, Audrey has a floral shop that is unique in the fact that every one of the couples she's done bouquets for are still married.  And since she's being interviewed because of this fact, I tend to wonder if she is the only floral shop in town.  Why, you ask?  Because why would anyone go anywhere else?  Everyone who gets married wants their marriage to stick, so of course, knowing this fact - and if the television crew knows it, others must too - no one would go anywhere else.  Not to mention the fact that after the piece airs, all the other floral shops will be put out of business, because weddings are a huge market, and who wants their flowers done if there's a chance the marriage might go sour someday?  Just a thought...

 

So Jenny is engaged to Derek, but doesn't want to be.  Her mother wants her to be, so she does (spineless girl, it's not her mother who will have to live with the jerk).  Anyway, she comes to Audrey and somehow convinces Audrey to allow Jenny to work for her, so Audrey gives her some supplies and sends her home to practice.  Then, when Derek is found dead, killed with the 'practice knife' that Audrey gave Jenny, Jenny is immediately suspect.  (Although I couldn't really think that if she was intending to marry a rich, handsome man, that killing him would be a viable alternative unless she was already in the will, but hey, just a thought...)

 

So the police go to Audrey's shop and take ALL OF HER TOOLS!  They have the murder weapon, but they feel the need to confiscate EVERY SINGLE TOOL she has!  This effectively puts her out of business, since she can't work without tools.  I mean, c'mon!  If you were a carpenter, and they already HAD the murder weapon, which might have been a hammer, WHY would the police take ALL of your tools?  How could you work without them?  So you have to lose business even if they know you probably didn't do anything?  Just a thought...

 

Plus, as if that isn't bad enough, a delivery guy comes to Audrey's the next day and a cop THROWS HIM UP AGAINST THE WALL and calls him a PERP!  Again, c'mon!  Really?  What kind of cop would just grab someone and throw them up against the wall without finding out what they were doing there?  Was he afraid the guy was going to attack him with flowers?  Just a thought...

 

Plus, later on, Audrey remarks that there are no blue roses, and that one she sees must be dyed.  Hmmm...I have blue roses in my yard, and I can tell you, they are hybrid, but not dyed.  Unless some garden gnome is going out there in the middle of the night and using a paintbrush or something.  So yes, there are blue roses. 

 

The most annoying trait she has is telling us the meaning of every single flower she comes across.  Do people really care about this?  I sure don't.  I look for beauty, color, scent.  I'm not picking out flowers because of hidden meanings.  I'm choosing them because they're attractive to me, and that's what counts in the long run.

 

At the end, you can see that I've had a few thoughts or two.  I really wish I could give this book a better rating, but it would be unfair to both the reader and the author.  Perhaps in the next book in the series Audrey won't go on spouting nonsense about flower meanings, and the police won't do unbelievable things.  I'm hoping the next book will improve.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bloom-Doom-Bridal-Bouquet-Mystery/dp/0425264971/

 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/944172962