Murder. It’s a perennial problem. Verity Hawkes is a shut-in. After two years bunkered in her apartment, the only thing that gets her out is the disappearance of her beloved but eccentric aunt. As she takes over her aunt’s landscaping shop, she’ll need to go from hoarder to horticulturist in a hurry… obnoxious client. When a series of freak accidents kills the customer, all signs point to Verity as the killer.
The hunt for answers is on, and Verity must question a tipsy carpenter, a bacon-peddling vegan baker, and her dreamy landscaping competitor to keep her new life afloat. Failure to find the truth could put her back in a confined space for much more than two years…
From Garden To Grave is the first book in a series of delightfully funny cozy mysteries. If you like lovably quirky characters, deceptively idyllic Canadian villages, and twists you won’t see coming, then you’ll love Rickie Blair’s Leafy Hollow Mysteries.
Buy From Garden To Grave to plant a new seed of mystery today!
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First time I’ve read anything from this author. VERY entertaining, great characters, witty without being slapstick. And by the same token, the characters in the book are certainly idiosyncratic, but without being silly or outlandish. The plot moves along well (very important for me) so I stayed engaged right to the end.
This book started out well but then quickly went into a formula novel. Heroine begins to fall for handsome policeman (3000th time that’s happened in a cozy mystery), refuses to even think twice about her safety and stupidly goes into dangerous situations. Yo. Hum. And she quickly forgets about her deceased husband she’s been pining for for years and learns the landscaping business at record speed.
I enjoyed this cozy mystery.
My problem with this book is that it is not stand alone. While the story has an original approach in that the MC may or may not have inherited a cottage and business from her aunt, who is presumed dead, but since there is no body, could still be alive. An interesting twist involves trying to identify the mysterious extracurricular activities of the aunt and possibly the next door neighbor. What these were was not completely revealed in the first two books. At that point, I got frustrated and stopped reading the series.
It kept my attention.
“From Garden to Grave” earns 5/5 Antique Dresden Figurines!
Verity is the closest relative and her Aunt Adeline’s lawyer implores her to come to Leafy Hollow; two thousand miles away is a problem since Verity hasn’t left the house much since her husband suddenly passed away. However, her aunt is missing. The police say she died in the accident and the body swept away by the river’s current, but Verity has had questions all her life about her aunt’s strange behavior and can’t see that the evidence indicates her aunt is dead. When she arrives in Leafy Hollow as directed by her aunt’s lawyer, she gets thrown, well threatened, into a landscaping job her aunt had yet to finish which doesn’t end well…finicky mower, bald patches on the lawn, cut up wisteria, verbal threats, broken ladder, coyote trap, broken ankles, police interrogation. Whew, what a welcome! Then a death, accident not likely, but Verity will need to do a lot of talking to get out of this one.
I am new to Rickie Blair’s Leafy Hollow Mystery series, but I decided to start with the newest release “A Branch Too Far.” I understood the book was a kind of standalone with the immediate mystery finding a conclusion, but the references to a missing aunt, an issue that is said to weave throughout the series, made me curious I’d missed something. BUT…now, I get it…this first book answered several ‘How?’ questions that lingered because of starting with the third book. How Verity came to live in Leafy Hollow and run the landscaping business? How strangers became BFFs? How the mystery of the missing aunt becomes even more mysterious? How the police get to know Verity’s name by heart? The story was very clever and entertaining incorporating various family dramas, turn-coat neighbors, landscaping competitors, a hint of a future romantic entanglement, a kitten, a chicken, and nothing but secrets about Verity’s aunt. Although the immediate mystery comes to a ‘Wow!’ ending, the missing aunt and her secrets get a bit “What!?” at the end. Cool!
I loved this story – from the first page to the last and now I am longing for more!
A very likeable but troubled main character. The troubles didn’t overshine the story just made the character more real and gave her more depth. The mystery is set in the small town Leafy Hollow, Ontario, Canada. We are introduced to a quite big cast of people but they are introduced so well and the characters are so different that it is not confusing or overwhelming.
The mystery was very good paced without any boring passages and I always appreciate getting some chuckles out of a story. There’s also the background story about the disappearance of Veritys’ aunt that I can see to be developing very interesting in the following installments.
This excellent story and it’s wonderful characters make for a fantastic read. I can’t wait to get back to my friends in Leafy Hollow!
A fun read for fans of cozy mysteries. If you like stories about small town or village life, this story may give you quite a few chuckles, with a murder mystery and murky, environment damaging land deal thrown in for more fun and adventure.
The main character Adeline is recovering from life in the big city, and the death of her husband, in this small village. She discovers new travels as fast as the speed of text and many interested parties.
Cute critters and funny characters aplenty.
Despite the author’s humorous approach, I reached the end of the to realize that a surprising number of really serious topics had been addressed amid all the fun and mayhem.
A variety of relationships, friendship and romantic, as well as extended family, were touched on in ways both insightful and funny.