The Gardener's Plot, by Deborah J. Benoit

 Publication Nov. 5, 2024

I'm not much of a gardener but I love flowers, so decided to give this one a chance. I'm so glad I did. While I have to admit to finding Maggie Walker's questioning style pushy and rather obvious, I liked her. Like many, she's making a new start by going back to known places, ie living in her late grandmother's home, and dealing with both old friends and enemies as well as trying to make new friends. She's a master gardener and has started writing a gardening column for the local paper, so she seems to be on the right track. Even more impressive, she was tapped to help organize the local community garden. She's excited about that...until she discovers a boot in one of the plots. A boot attached to a foot. Uh, oh.

Without giving away the plot, I will say that while it seemed slow in spots, my hunch is we were getting valuable background for future book in a series. At least I hope so. I liked Maggie, pushy and occasionally fractious as she was when confronted by the standard operating procedure of the police. There seems to be a history with local police chief Sam, one that has lead to Sam's wife Catherine being openly hateful to Maggie. And, oh, that detective, Matt Quinn. While grudgingly admitting he's good looking, Maggie seems at odds with him the entire book. Well, almost the entire book. Love the possibilities the ending offers. Like Maggie, Sam and Matt seem to be good people, caught in the middle between their softer side and the bureaucracy of police procedure. Maggie's friend and neighbor, Sally, is there for Maggie, even when she fears it might put her family in danger. And, yes, danger is lurking. Not one but two murders occur. Even worse, Maggie is with Sally when they stumble across the second body thanks to Sally's dog Dreyfus. And that's just the beginning of the action, which also involves snotty encounters with Catherine, cranky garden plot owners, Maggie's annoying pest of a cousin, and a growing fear that this isn't over simply because the bodies have been discovered. Trust me, it isn't. 

You don't have to be a gardener to enjoy this one, either. In fact, if you read carefully, you might even pick up a few helpful tidbits. Maggie and Sally, the featured characters, are quite likable and seem to work well together, showing promise as amateur sleuths. Maggie seems to recognize at the end that her probing questions may have help create the danger Sally and she faced at the end, too, so it'll be interesting to see how that balances with her natural curiosity and need to know. Bottom line, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and am looking forward to the next. Thanks #StMartin'sPress - #MinotaurBooks for the early introduction to Maggie and the cast of characters that surround her. And, oh, I definitely liked the role the K9 police dog played at the end. What can I say? I'm a dog person. Grin.