Great Escapes Book Tours Book Review: The Skeleton Garden

Author: Marty Wingate
Title:The Skeleton Garden: A Potting Shed Mystery
4th in Series
Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Alibi (March 15, 2016)
233 pages ASIN: B00ZNE45FO

Synopsis USA Today bestselling author Marty Wingate’s Potting Shed series continues as expert gardener Pru Parke digs up a Nazi warplane—and a fresh murder.

Texas transplant Pru Parke has put down roots in England, but she never dreamed she’d live in a grand place such as Greenoak. When her former employers offer Pru and her new husband, former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, the use of their nineteenth-century estate while they’re away for a year, she jumps at the chance. Sweetening the deal is the prospect of further bonding with her long-lost brother, Simon, who happens to be Greenoak’s head gardener. But the majestic manor has at least one skeleton in its closet—or, rather, its garden.

Working on renovations to the extensive grounds, siblings Pru and Simon squabble about everything from boxwood to bay hedges. But when the removal of a half-dead tree turns up the wreckage of a World War II–era German fighter plane and a pile of bones, the arguments stop. That is, until a rival from Simon’s past pays a surprise visit and creates even more upheaval. It’s suddenly clear someone is unhappy their secrets have been unearthed. Still, Pru’s not about to sit back and let Simon take the fall for the dirty deed without a fight.


Review: I read the first Potting Shed mystery awhile back. I missed a few between, and I feel bad about that, because it made getting back into the swing of the story a bit difficult for me. If you are just jumping into the series, it shouldn't matter much, because Marty gives you the backstory. For me I knew what happened in the first book and it was a bit of a shock to see how much had happened in a mixed book.

Once I got through all of that, the mystery was a wonderful one. It does seem slow at times, but that is kind of Marty's style and if you've read her books before, you'll know that this is just the way it goes, and it isn't a bad thing. Cozies don't have to be super fast paced.
I liked that the mystery ties with something that happened during WWII.

Again, I have to say the pacing was slow, in fact it was a little slower than the other books I've read, but this mystery wasn't really the typical whodunit. There was a body found in the garden where Pru and her brother Simon are working along with the remains of a plain. Then when a person from the past turns up and ends up dead, things start getting interesting.

This book seemed to put family dynamics front and center, with a lot of relationship issues with Pru and Simon and Christopher and Claire, along with Orlando, his nephew, who was a really great character and one I wish had a little more time in the book.

This is the second mystery I've read recently that I've deduced the killer well before the last chapter. That didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book though.

Fantastic British Cozy

Rating: 5 flowers

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Rhyme Of The Magpie

About The Rhyme of the Magpie: A Birds of a Feather Mystery

Published by : Alibi  (June 02, 2015)
Pages: 224

For readers of Laura Childs, Ellery Adams, and Jenn McKinlay, the high-flying new Birds of a Feather mystery series from Marty Wingate begins as a British woman gets caught up in a dangerous plot when her celebrity father disappears.

With her personal life in disarray, Julia Lanchester feels she has no option but to quit her job on her father’s hit BBC Two nature show, A Bird in the Hand. Accepting a tourist management position in Smeaton-under-Lyme, a quaint village in the English countryside, Julia throws herself into her new life, delighting sightseers (and a local member of the gentry) with tales of ancient Romans and pillaging Vikings.

But the past is front and center when her father, Rupert, tracks her down in a moment of desperation. Julia refuses to hear him out; his quick remarriage after her mother’s death was one of the reasons Julia flew the coop. But later she gets a distressed call from her new stepmum: Rupert has gone missing. Julia decides to investigate—she owes him that much, at least—and her father’s new assistant, the infuriatingly dapper Michael Sedgwick, offers to help. Little does the unlikely pair realize that awaiting them is a tightly woven nest of lies and murder.

“Marty Wingate plants clever clues with a dash of romantic spice to satisfy any hungry mystery reader.”—Mary Daheim, bestselling author of The Alpine Yeoman

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I discovered Marty Wingate on a book tour for her Potting Shed Mystery series. I absolutely love that series, so I decided to give this one a go as well.

Whereas the Potting Shed Mysteries involve English Gardens, this book involves birds and some environmental issues as well.

Julia is quiet the heroine in this story. She's dealing with a lot of changes in her life, changes she has a hard time dealing with. I really liked her and found I could identify with her. I know if either of parent were to remarry quickly after the death of the other, and to that parents bff, I'd be more than a bit angry. However, some of her actions are a little too much to handle and she does come across as childish.

So Julia's relationship with her father, who did just that, is strained, to say the least, though thankfully things improve as the story goes on. 

Then her dad disappears and a body is found on his property, a body that belongs to someone who didn't quiet get along with him. In fact, they could call each other enemies. Worse yet, her dad got a threatening letter and then he is kidnapped!

Along with her father's new assistant (a job that used to be hers), Michael, they set about solving the mystery. There's some romantic tension between these two as well. I found that they made an excellent couple and I look forward to seeing how their relationship progresses in upcoming books.

There's a lot of family goings on, as well as stuff with old family friends, who may not be quite so friendly as they were thought to be.

What sets Marty's books apart from other authors, is how well she conceals the whodunit. You definitely will be kept guessing until the very end.

This was a highly enjoyable story and a great start to a new series. I have to say, I like the Potting Shed mysteries better, but I think this series shows promise.

Rating: 5 flowers

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Red Book Of Primrose House

Author: Marty Wingate
Title: The Red Book of Primrose House
Publisher: Alibi
Publish Date: Nov 4, 2014
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours and NetGalley

Book Blurb: In Marty Wingate’s charming new Potting Shed Mystery, Texas transplant Pru Parke’s restoration of a historic landscape in England is uprooted by an ax murderer.

Pru Parke has her dream job: head gardener at an eighteenth-century manor house in Sussex. The landscape for Primrose House was laid out in 1806 by renowned designer Humphry Repton in one of his meticulously illustrated Red Books, and the new owners want Pru to restore the estate to its former glory—quickly, as they’re planning to showcase it in less than a year at a summer party.

But life gets in the way of the best laid plans: When not being happily distracted by the romantic attentions of the handsome Inspector Christopher Pearse, Pru is digging into the mystery of her own British roots. Still, she manages to make considerable progress on the vast grounds—until vandals wreak havoc on each of her projects. Then, to her horror, one of her workers is found murdered among the yews. The police have a suspect, but Pru is certain they’re wrong. Once again, Pru finds herself entangled in a thicket of evil intentions—and her, without a hatchet.

Review: I love this beautiful English cozy series. Pru Parke is just a great, unique heroine. She's 51 and working as head gardener at a manor house in Sussex.

I love that she only has one love interest, Christopher Pearse, and that their relationship is a good one and we get to see that develop as this book goes one. Christopher plays a bigger part in Pru's life rather than the mystery in this book. He also is doing his best to protect her from the killer too.

The mystery involves the death of one of her assistants, after a string of vandals hit the garden she's working in. At first you think the victim just might have deserved what he got. He was a bit of an old fashioned guy and a curmudgeon at large, but as the story goes on, you find he really did care for his daughter's well being.

The police have a suspect or two, but like Pru, you know that they can't be right. In fact, you might be a little bit angry at their first choice of suspects, when you have at least two floating around your head as potentials.

You also get to learn a bit more about Pru's English ancestry in this book, which proves to be as exciting as the murder. There's also some drama surrounding Christopher's son, who is working in Dubai.

The mystery is solved before the book is finished, which felt a little bit odd to me, but there were other things, like the status of Pru's employment that needed wrapping up. It made the end of the book feel a bit awkward, but it didn't hurt the quality of the story at all.

There's great character development here and a whole slew of quirky secondary characters that make this a great read and a great series.


Rating: 5 flowers

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Garden Plot

Author: Marty Wingate
Title: The Garden Plot
Publisher: Alibi
Publish Date: May 6, 2014
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley & TLC Book Tours
Book Blurb: 

In an entirely appealing mystery debut, Marty Wingate introduces readers to a curious Texas ex-pat whose English gardening expertise on occasion leads her to unearth murderous goings-on.

Pru Parke always dreamed of living in England. And after the Dallas native follows an impulse and moves to London, she can’t imagine ever leaving—though she has yet to find a plum position as a head gardener. Now, as the sublet on her flat nears its end, the threat of forced departure looms. Determined to stay in her beloved adopted country, Pru takes small, private gardening jobs throughout the city.

On one such gig in Chelsea, she makes an extraordinary find. Digging in the soil of a potting shed, Pru uncovers an ancient Roman mosaic. But enthusiasm over her discovery is soon dampened when, two days later, she finds in the same spot a man’s bludgeoned corpse. As the London police swarm her worksite, ever inquisitive Pru can’t quite manage to distance herself from the investigation—much to the dismay of stern Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse. It seems that, much as he tries, even handsome DCI Pearse can’t keep Pru safe from a brutal killer who thinks she’s already dug up too much.

Review: The Garden Plot is the first in a new cozy mystery series and one that will delight readers. Pru is a Texan who has transplanted herself (pun intended) on British soil. She wants to find work before the year is up in the UK so she doesn't have to return to Dallas.

She's getting rejection letter after rejection letter. (These letters start most of the chapters and make for a slightly comic if not a bit sad touch)

Readers should easily warm to Pru, who is kind, sweet and passionate about her job. When she gets a small job with the Wilsons she thinks things may be looking up, until she stumbles on (again pun intended) a dead body in the shed.

Pru jumps into the case, because Mr. Wilson looks like the only suspect and she can't believe he'd be the one who did it. Then there's the nosy neighbor, Malcolm who is trying to warn her away from them. Oh and you can't forget the hunky DCI Pearse.

I love how Pru kept reminding herself about not being a police man, when she was doing something wrong.

Pru is a great character. Plus I learned quite a bit reading this, as the mystery involved some Roman artifacts. I loved learning about the underground rivers in the UK, like the river Fleet.

Marty Wingate does a wonderful job with the mystery, too. You go through most of the story thinking you know who did it, but when all is revealed, you find you were wrong.

I can't wait to see what Pru gets up to next, as well as how things go with the hunk DCI.

Rating: 5 flowers

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