“Wonderful mystery with a unique and special heroine!” – A Cozy Cup of MurderMeet Motts and the quirky cast of characters in her world. Poisoned Primrose is a quintessential cosy British mystery and an all-round fun story to throw yourself into.Autistic, asexual, and almost forty, Pineapple “Motts” Mottley flees London with her cat and turtle to a quaint cottage in Cornwall. She craves the peace … in Cornwall. She craves the peace of life in a small village. The dead body buried in her garden isn’t quite what she had in mind, though.
Unable to resist her curiosity, she falls directly into a mess of trouble and runs head-first into the attractive detective inspector, Teo Herceg. She tries to balance her business with the investigation, but as the killer focuses on her, staying alive becomes trickier than advanced origami.
Will Motts survive the onslaught of murderously bad luck?
Can she solve the mystery before it all spins out of control and off a cliff?
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Poisoned Primrose by Dahlia Donovan is quite spectacular. I was pleasantly surprised by the sleuth and reasons for investigating.
Will Motts figure out who killed Rhona, or will she be the killer’s next victim?
Pineapple Mottley, a.k.a. Motts
Motts is a surprising sleuth. Her reasoning for doing things kept me guessing. However, I adore her reasoning. Motts is sweet, yet distant. She doesn’t like to have lots of people around, at times that include her family too. Motts has some differences that make her uncomfortable around people, and she doesn’t always know how to react to them. All of those things make Motts wonderful. Oh, and did I mention that her companions are a cat and a turtle. And these pets like to gossip with each other.
The Mystery
Motts is cleaning up the garden of her newly inherited home and finds a body buried under a pile of stones. The thought of that woman’s life is extinguished, and the murderer is free upsets Motts. She begins asking questions about the woman, Rhona, around town. The thing is Motts wants to help solve it, but mostly she can’t move on until all of her questions have been answered. I honestly found Motts to be a brilliant sleuth, even if she doesn’t figure out who the culprit is right away.
Five Stars
Ms. Donvon has a wonderful sense of humor that flows through the book. She starts with this line which made me question my choice, but laugh as I thought about it a few chapters later.
A cat, a turtle, and a Pineapple walk into a cottage… That’s it. That’s the punch line of my life choices.
This book is fabulously written. The characters, the setting, the food, and the cold case are all so well-plotted and developed. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the next installment. I challenge you to step out of the regular cozies to read this one. It is so worth it. My rating is five stars, and I highly recommend Poisoned Primrose by Dahlia Donovan.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Poisoned Primrose by Dahlia Donovan.
This Guest Review is for Baroness’ Book Trove.
Until the next time,
~Jen
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I thoroughly enjoyed this cozy mystery with such wonderful characters. What a refreshing take on village life too, I have to admit this Aussie did look up Polperro after reading the descriptions and fell in love with it. I can honestly say the written visuals given in the book are so accurate, going by the photos I saw online, that I was so pleased my imagery, when reading, was correct.
Now, Pineapple, or Motts as she prefers, is one fantastic character with her total honesty and way of seeing things. Her autism is supported by such wonderful people and being older she has learned many coping strategies. What is terrific is I learned things that I hope could help someone in the future. I intend to read more from this author when you find a new author and enjoy their words you stick to them.
The mystery is a good one, not necessarily predictable as in the why but who… well it did take me a little while to be truthful but then I suspect that was all designed to be that way by this clever writer. One of my favorite elements was the interesting alliteration sentences, as a retired primary school teacher, this was actually one of my favorite fun activities to do to build creativity and descriptive words. What a delight it was to read them and it brought back great memories, thank you.
Teo is an interesting character and a fabulous match for Motts, he is so caring and insightful too. Honestly, all of the villagers I want to get to know better. They all felt like old friends or that we could be. I look forward to reading more from this author especially this series.
Reviewer: Robyn
I thoroughly enjoyed this cosy mystery with such wonderful characters. What a refreshing take on village life too, I have to admit this Aussie did look up Polperro after reading the descriptions and fell in love with it. I can honestly say the written visuals given in the book are so accurate, going by the photos I saw online, that I was so pleased my imagery, when reading, was correct.
Now, Pineapple, or Motts as she prefers, is one fantastic character with her totally honesty and way of seeing things. Her autism is supported by such wonderful people and being older she has learnt many coping strategies. What is terrific is I learnt things that I hope could help someone in the future. I intend to read more from this author, when you find a new author and enjoy their words you stick to them.
The mystery is a good one, not necessarily predictable as in the why but who… well it did take me a little while to be truthful but then I suspect that was all designed to be that way by this clever writer. One of my favourite elements were the interesting alliteration sentences, as a retired primary school teacher this was actually one of my favourite fun activities to do to build creativity and descriptive words. What a delight it was to read them and it brought back great memories, thank you.
Teo is an interesting character and a fabulous match for Motts, he is so caring and insightful too. Honestly, all of the villagers I want to get to know better. They all felt like old friends or that we could be. I look forward to reading more from this author especially this series.
4.5 Star Review of Poisoned Primrose (Motts Cold Case Mystery #1) by Dahlia Donovan
I was intrigued when I read the blurb for this book and as I enjoy cozy mysteries and Dahlia Donovan is a new author to me, I could not wait to dive in.
Our heroine is Pineapple “Motts” Mottley (I just love the name) who is close to forty, autistic and asexual and I fell for her hard and fast. Motts is quirky and awkward and honestly I liked her. Having moved to Cornwall to escape the rat race, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body in her garden.
Determined to investigate she butts heads initially with the detective inspector in charge of the case, Teo Herceg. She is such a unique character, she talks to her pets, a Sphinx cat, Cactus, and her turtle, Moss which made for some humorous moments.
This was a a book filled with secrets and enough clues to indulge my detective spirit. The intrigue and suspense kept me on riveted as I listened to this story.