Review: An American gardener in England mystery series.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 7, 2014
When a book combines England, gardening, and mystery it hits on three of my favorite subjects. Pru Parke gave up her job in Dallas, Texas and gave herself a year to live in England and find a permanent job as head gardener at a private estate so she would have a way to support herself and remain in England permanently. Pru had always felt as if she belonged in England and the death of her mother left her alone in the States, with the freedom to pursue her dream. Literally falling over a dead body in a garden shed had never figured into her plans, though.This is the first novel in what may become a series and was quite an interesting reading experience for me. Author Marty Wingate has created a character who is perhaps more of a nave dreamer than most successful investigative lead characters, but I hope that this first experience with solving a murder mystery will help Pru learn to be more aware of people around her if there are future books about her. Pru really was a lot too gullible at times. The mystery was very well constructed initially, but began to slow down somewhat in the middle of the book. The relationship which developed with Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse was a nice addition to the plot and allowed Pru to have access to some information that might not have been so easily obtained. It was also nice to find an amateur detective and the professional who were not constantly at odds with each other, that made a nice change. There were a few too many convenient coincidences that took place which were not exactly to be expected in a city the size of London, but from a plotting standpoint they were pretty much essential in order to keep the story moving.The gardening information is well done in the novel for those readers who are interested in gardening and yet not so overwhelming that it might be a deterrent for readers uninterested in the subject. Hopefully future books will continue to allow the reader to be an armchair traveler to other great gardening and historical sites through England. I did enjoy this story and there is a wide scope for subject matter to be featured in future novels.I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.