On this Mysterious Monday, we review the first book in the
Leafy Hollow series by Rickie Blair: it’s got murder (naturally), secrets,
gardening, and a cat—so, everything you need, basically.
The story
Verity Hawkes is an unemployed bookkeeper who, at just
twenty-something, is a young widow and has not left her Vancouver apartment
building in two years. She spends her days alone and reads a lot of self-help
books—though we’re not sure they’re doing her much good, because, you know, she’s
still shut up in the apartment.
Well, Verity’s world gets a sudden jolt when she gets a call
telling her that her aunt Adeline, who is—um, let’s call her “interesting”—presumed
dead. Verity needs to go all the way to Leafy Hollow to deal with things. Maybe
it will do her good to get out, and it would be nice to see Leafy Hollow again,
and surely Aunt Adeline isn’t really dead… So off Verity goes, but what she
finds is nothing like what she expected.
First, the idyllic cottage she remembers from her childhood
is practically a ruin. Second, the clients of Aunt Adeline’s landscaping
business expect Verity to step in and take over horticultural duties. Well,
Verity does need money, so she agrees to do her very first landscaping job—and
quickly makes a mess of it. This leads to an argument with the exceptionally rude
client, and when said rude client later falls off a ladder, gets caught in a
coyote trap, and is finally killed in an “accident,” Verity becomes a suspect in
the crime. It’s up to her and her new Leafy Hollow friends to prove her
innocence and find out what really happened to Adeline, who seems to have been
caught up in some sort of secret something... It's all very mysterious!
The cat
One of her new friends is a one-eyed cat she names Tom (at
first; he gets a better name later). He is “a bedraggled silver gray tabby [whose]
tattered ears stuck out at odd angles,” so he sort of fits in with the
falling-apart cottage. Tom at first shows up only to eat, but he later becomes
more permanent. We hope to see more of him in future volumes, as we think he will make a nice companion for Verity.
Our verdict
We enjoyed this book very much. It’s a nice start to the
series, with a perfect setup for future developments (just what did
happen to Adeline?). We liked Verity’s spunk, her willingness to do whatever needs
to be done—even if she doesn’t know how. She’ll figure it out as she goes
along. We look forward to seeing her continue to grow in this series. Leafy
Hollow is filled with a pleasing cast of characters, each of whom adds a dash
of spice to the book. And the plot moves along at a nice pace, with enough
twists and turns to keep things interesting. We can’t say we were totally
surprised by the killer’s identity, but getting a big shock at the end is not
really the point of a cozy. Getting engrossed in a story and a setting filled
with quirky characters is the point, and From Garden to Grave does that
wonderfully.
Recommended!
A
note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up.
One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three
or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!
The
link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this
link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!
Not sure how I've missed this one but I'm heading to Amazon to check it out!
ReplyDeletesounds like a very fun read
ReplyDeleteI want to read this now to see what name Tom ends up with :)
ReplyDeleteCats truly fix everything!
ReplyDelete