Overview:Extreme gardening often involves gnomes and planted bodies… identifies him as Charles Clayborne… reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about—he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer…before she’s pushing up daisies, herself.
Other Works…
If you want more Myrtle Clover, please check out the other books in the series: The books can be read out of order, but the technical order of the books is as follows: Pretty is as Pretty Dies, Progressive Dinner Deadly, Dyeing Shame, A Body in the Backyard, Death at a Drop-In, A Body at Book Club, Death Pays a Visit, and A Body at Bunco
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If you enjoy cozy mysteries, you’ll want to check out Elizabeth’s other series, The Southern Quilting Mysteries and the Memphis Barbeque Mysteries (written as Riley Adams).more
Lovable Myrtle is guaranteed to make you laugh and want her as your neighbor. Superb series.
I am hooked on this series. Best cozy mystery series! Love the cooking flops! Love the characters!
This review is for the audio book.
Well Myrtle Clover isn’t an octogenarian superhero but with her sidekick Miles, she is very funny and does solve a murder, so close enough. I loved this book (In fact I am enjoying the whole series). It is hard to say just one thing I liked because I liked it all the mystery, the number of suspects (I hadn’t worked who the killer was) and even the family life. I think if I had to pick it would be the characters themselves, the way they play off each other- the toing and throwing between Myrtle and her sidekick Miles, the avoidance of her nemesis and next door neighbour Erma, the daughter In law’s craft projects, even the relationship between her and her son all of it add up to lots of light hearted humour and a must listen.
Myrtle has finally got her yard man to come and cut her grass around her gnomes. That is until he finds a dead body in her back yard and it is not an offering from the stray cat that has adopted her. The dead man turns out to be Miles cousin, who he doesn’t like because he wasn’t the nicest person in the world. Myrtle is tickled pink to have a crime scene in her very own back yard, that way Red her son and police Chief can’t freeze her out of the investigation and just to make sure Myrtle offers to hold the wake at her house. With plenty of help in the cooking department it seems Myrtle had pulled it off, that is until another dead body is discovered in her back yard. Why has her garden suddenly become a dumping ground for dead bodies? She is use to the odd snake, mouse and even bat but bodies? At this rate Red will be shipping her off to greener pastures retirement home. That is unless she and Miles can get to the bottom of this mystery. With so make suspects it’s going to take a little bit of digging and a case of being in the right place at the right time.
The narrator was okay but talked very clearly to pronounce each word, which resulted in not much range or variety in voices.
I laughed from beginning to end! The gnomes where the best (i LOVE gnomes!) and I was heartbroken that someone would use one as a murder weapon. I found a AWESOME new author and series that I LOVE
I get a great chuckle out of Myrtle Clover series. I think I will be like her at that age.
This is the fourth book in the series, and it’s my favorite so far! There are so many twists and turns in this novel, with some family connections toons revealed that you never, ever would have thought! The mystery is interesting, the characters are fun, and the revelations are shocking.
Myrtle Clover is having a normal day… until her yard man, Dusty, goes to mow her backyard and finds a dead body. Things only get more interesting when Myrtle’s best friend and trusty sidekick, Miles Bradford, reluctantly identifies the body as his cousin Charles. Charles isn’t a resident of Bradley, and he has a bad reputation around town despite being there less than two weeks. As Myrtle drags Miles along on yet another case, their friendship becomes strained. Has Myrtle gone to far and ostracized one of her best friends? And will she be the next one to be found dead?
This book focuses more on Myrtle’s friendship with Miles. They aren’t on the best of terms throughout a good portion of the book, and it is great to see things becoming resolved through solving the mystery. They are a great team, and they are great friends, with no romantic tension at all, which is nice to see. Most people think you can’t have a male-female friendship without romance involved in some way, so it is nice to see that sentiment shared in this series.
If you love Myrtle Clover, pick up this book. But it is not the book to start with. I think you will enjoy the dynamics of this book better if you start with an earlier novel. If you jump in here, you will have no idea who Wanda and Dan are, so some points won’t be as shocking if you don’t know them. The same goes for Elaine and Red, Erma, and Myrtle and Miles. You should know these characters before diving into this book, and the other books are great, so try them first.