by Kathleen Costa

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an EBOOK copy of Best Laid Plants, and a link to purchase it from Amazon.

Set in the Cotswolds, Prunella “Pru” Parke, a highly sought after professional gardener, receives a letter from Cora Summersun who reveals that in the near future she expects to inherit a lovely manor house and surrounding gardens known as Glebe House. She hopes to hire Pru as a consultant using her expertise to sort through copious amounts of journals, diagrams, and files, to design a plan to restore the gardens to their original grandeur. What a delightful and intriguing proposition, and along with a little getaway in the Cotswolds, how can she pass this up! Well, when murder sprouts and the list of suspects with motives and opportunity grows, Pru is greatly challenged to find the killer before someone else gets planted six-feet under.

Marty Wingate first authored the very entertaining Potting Shed Mystery series in 2014 with the release of The Garden Plot and receiving well-deserved rave reviews for the six books. My newbie status was richly rewarded starting with the cleverly titled and most recent release, Best Laid Plants, and after only a few pages, I consider myself a big fan. Marty’s well-written mystery has descriptions creating delightful mental pictures, intriguing dialog, and lots of possible conclusions that challenged my inner Sherlock. I couldn’t put down. Don’t overlook the way each chapter begins with a poignant phrase from what was suspected and turned out to be the victim’s journals that were more a memoir than gardening diary of tips and plant descriptions. Those snippets added to the mystery.

Right off Marty illustrated the wonderful relationship between ex-pat and Texas native Pru Parke and her husband former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse revisiting in passing the fact that the two met over a murder investigation and calls attention to Pru’s limited cooking skills. Wrap all that into an informative myriad of gardening ideas and details of the local flora, descriptions of local homes and stately manors, my favorite setting in the Cotswolds along with a few hiccups like a woman from Christopher’s past, quirky villagers, and a dead body in the garden! Just the right recipe for the most engaging cozy story for fans and newbies alike. I highly recommend this book, and you don’t need a ‘green thumb’ to enjoy.

Best Laid Plants earns 5+/5 Gardens of Flowers, Herbs, and…Murderous Fun!

Be a Big Marty Wingate Fan!
Along with the six-book Potting Shed Mystery series, Marty Wingate pens the four-book Birds of a Feather Mysteries which first published in June 2015 with The Rhyme of the Magpie, followed by Empty Nest (2015), Every Trick in the Rook (2017), and soon to be released in early 2018 Farewell, My Cuckoo. This series, also set in England, follows Julia Lancaster, who after quitting her father’s BBC nature show A Bird in the Hand, heads off to the English countryside to manage a tourist information center. The first mystery includes the disappearance of her father which leads her to meet her father’s new assistant, the handsome Michael Sedgwick, who becomes her romantic interest and a delightful opposites attract dynamic. Together they manage to find themselves in the middle of a variety murder investigations, and just like in the Potting Shed Mysteries, Marty treats readers to delightful and informative insights into the local feathered friends. This is quickly becoming a favorite series, too!

Like, Visit, and Follow!
Facebook – Marty Wingate Author
Website – Random House Books Author Marty Wingate

To enter to win an EBOOK copy of Best Laid Plants, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “plants,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen December 2, 2017. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

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Kathleen Costa is a long-time resident of the Central Valley, and although born in Idaho, she considers herself a “California Girl.” Graduating from CSU-Sacramento, she is a 35+ year veteran teacher having taught in grades 1-8 in schools from Sacramento to Los Angeles to Stockton to Lodi. Currently Kathleen is enjoying her retirement revitalizing hobbies along with exploring writing, reading for pleasure, and spending 24/7 with her husband.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.