The Borrowed Bouquet by Jody Chaffin

October 6, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Borrowed Bouquet by Jody Chaffin
A Larkspur Hollow Garden Club Mystery, Book 5
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Holiday, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A bouquet nobody sent. Forty-eight puzzles to the truth.

All week, the Larkspur Hollow Garden Club has been selling Valentine’s parcels — a bouquet and a card to every house in the valley — to save a grand old Vermont house from falling down. On the night of the benefit, quiet, kind Winnie Talbot receives the most beautiful flowers anyone has ever sent her, and a card asking her to meet.

By morning she has been pulled from Larkspur Creek. The whole Hollow agrees she slipped on the ice. Retired schoolteacher Eleanor “Nell” Ashworth does not.

And nobody can say who sent those flowers. There is no order form, no payment, and no shop in the county that could have grown a rose like that in February.

But this time, the detective is you.

Each chapter hands you a scene and a word search. Solve the puzzle, and the leftover letters reveal a hidden clue — a suspect cleared, a motive exposed, a secret the Hollow would rather keep buried. Track them across forty-eight puzzles and you’ll be ready to name the killer, the motive, the weapon, and the place before Nell does.

Six suspects. One bouquet nobody can account for. A verdict only you can reach.

Valentine’s Day is a terrible time to be alone.

I’m thrilled to finally be able to give a five star rating to one of the Larkspur Hollow Garden Club mysteries. Including love in this tale was what ultimately propelled me into making this decision, although I can’t say what type of love it was without giving away spoilers. What I can say is that even thought this was about a murder it was heartwarming as well. The main characters felt more well-rounded than ever, and I deeply enjoyed getting to once again explore their complex relationships with one another.

As I originally mentioned in my review of The Buried Bloom, this series does an excellent job of exploring small town politics. It’s something that was present in that very first book but also continued to be included later on in the series in all sorts of memorable ways. This time around, it centered on the complex relationships that can develop between people who have mixed feelings about each other but are forced to interact more than is emotionally healthy for them due to the limited opportunities for socializing in such a tiny community. While I don’t want to share any spoilers about how that sort of relationship can turn out, I adored what the author did with it and am excited to see what he comes up with next.

The rose analogy worked quite well for me even though I do not grow flowers or garden in my spare time. It will be interesting to see if readers who are more familiar with gardening feel the same way, but I thought those scenes describing how roses can be grown at times of the year when plants in general do not typically bloom not only added some beauty to the storyline but also complemented the life of the victim nicely. They always felt like natural additions to the plot, and I would have happily read even more of them had this been a longer piece.

The Borrowed Bouquet immensely satisfied me.

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Liar’s Creek by Matt Goldman

October 5, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Liar’s Creek by Matt Goldman
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Ginger

Riverwood, Minnesota is a scenic town threaded with trout streams carving their way through limestone bluffs. But beneath its picturesque facade, danger runs rampant.

Clay Hawkins isn’t a stranger to the secrets of his hometown. After twenty years away, Clay has recently returned home from abroad with his twelve-year-old son, and his relationship with his father, the recently replaced sheriff, is as strained as ever.

But when Clay’s beloved uncle disappears, the three generations of Hawkinses must overturn every stone in Riverwood and confront deep familial wounds to find the one person who brings them together. As danger looms, Clay worries that it might be too late to save his uncle―and that the rest of the family might be next.

In “Liar’s Creek,” the author creates a vivid atmosphere in Riverwood, Minnesota, where the limestone bluffs and trout streams feel like characters themselves. If you enjoy mysteries with a strong sense of place, the beautiful scenery is a standout feature.

At its heart, the novel is a raw exploration of multi-generational friction and the deep-seated wounds that define the Hawkins family. The strained relationships between Clay Hawkins, his 12-year-old son Braedon, and Clay’s father, former sheriff Judd Hawkins, feel real and emotional. As they search for their missing uncle, Teddy, they confront past wounds, adding depth to the suspense.

Clay’s relationship with his father is especially complex. They join forces to find Teddy, a charming but unreliable man who has gone missing before. This time, however, he hasn’t reached out to his wife or Judd. As the plot unfolds, Judd is hesitant to involve the new sheriff, Chief Zoey Jensen. Clay has his own secrets, which Judd suspects and Zoey will soon discover, but for now, their priority is finding Teddy. Braedon is an intelligent and intuitive boy who shares a close bond with his Grandpa Judd, as readers will find out, a connection Clay never had. Judd seems to be trying to make up for his past shortcomings as a father by nurturing his relationship with Braedon. Will the connection with his grandson help bridge the gap between him and Clay?

The backstory reveals that Clay and Judd’s relationship has always been troubled. After Clay’s mother passed away from breast cancer when he was young, Judd blamed Clay for her death. As they confront their shared past, Clay realizes he wants to break the cycle of dysfunction, especially since Braedon’s mother left when he was just a baby, never to be heard from again.

Overall, “Liar’s Creek” presents a captivating, easy-to-read storyline, even if some sections feel slow. The transition from a mystery to a heartfelt story about forgiveness and redemption is satisfying, even if the interpersonal drama sometimes overshadows the plot of finding Uncle Teddy.

Ultimately, “Liar’s Creek” masterfully blends slow-burn mystery with family dynamics. It goes beyond tackling the darkness of the past and offers a hopeful vision for the future, making it a rewarding read for those who appreciate stories filled with suspense, redemption, and the complex bonds of family.

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Murder Now And Then by Faith Martin

September 30, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Murder Now And Then by Faith Martin
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Former Detective Hillary Greene and her cold case team are taking a fresh look at the unsolved murder of Michael Beck, found bludgeoned over the head and dead in a river near his home in 2012.

Just twenty-two at the time, he’d recently finished a history degree and had his whole life ahead of him. Everyone said he was a pleasant sort of lad with a passion for the past, quietly living with his parents until he could afford a place of his own. But it quickly turned out that there were at least two people who might have wanted him dead.

The first, his recently-jilted girlfriend Mia de Salle, hadn’t taken the break-up well. The second, his former tutor Dr Timothy Durning, had been accused of sexual harassment by Michael. But the original team could find no forensic evidence linking either of their prime suspects to the crime, nor witnesses placing them in the area when Michael was killed.

Hillary, however, is determined to find fresh leads. But while she and her team get to work, in the city of Oxford two men from the city’s criminal underbelly have been viciously murdered in the last six months.

Are the recent murders and her own cold case linked? More than a decade later, has the same killer struck again? And if so, what’s the connection between the mild-mannered young man and the underworld criminals?

It’s up to Hillary to stop a killer getting away with murder — both now and then.

Ex-DI Hillary Greene and her small team are given the decade old murder of a young historian to investigate. With no forensics and no real leads pointing to anyone who disliked the friendly young man Hillary knew this would be a hard case to get a handle on. Can she and her team bring justice to the young man’s family?

I found this to be a fun and enjoyable British police procedural style of mystery book. While the murder plot was well written and layered, I felt that for this particular book it was a number of the longer running story arcs revolving around Hillary and her team’s personal lives that really stood out here. Readers who enjoy a well paces mystery should find this a good read. I found the various plots were very well explained though do admit a better emotional connection to the private stories – especially Gareth’s – might resonate deeper with readers who have read one of two of the more recent books in this series.

With interesting characters and not your usual police detectives more regularly found in British police novels, this is a fun and vibrant series that I am finding is a real go-to when I need something a little different to read and enjoy. For the most part the books are linked but still quite independent – I do love how they don’t necessarily need to be read in order to be enjoyed. And always with a solid mystery and good investigation work they’re a real pleasure to read.

A fun and character driven mystery, this is an enjoyable book I can easily recommend.

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The Brittle Blossom by Jody Chaffin

September 29, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Brittle Blossom by Jody Chaffin
A Larkspur Hollow Garden Club Mystery, Book 4
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Holiday, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

One snowbound Christmas. One body in the ice house. Forty-eight puzzles to the truth.

The grandest gala in forty years fills the Hartwell manor with light and garland — until a blizzard seals the covered bridge and traps the whole party inside for the night. By first light, old Amos Greer is found frozen in the ice house. Everyone calls it a terrible accident: a difficult old man, a wild storm, one careless step into the cold. Retired schoolteacher Eleanor “Nell” Ashworth is the only one still asking who walked him out there.

But this time, the detective is you.

Each chapter hands you a scene and a word search. Solve the puzzle, and the leftover letters reveal a hidden clue — a suspect cleared, a motive exposed, a secret the snow was never meant to give up. Track them across forty-eight puzzles and you’ll be ready to name the killer, the motive, the means, and the place before Nell does.

Winter is no time to take risks outdoors.

This was the perfect setting for such a mysterious death. I found it especially interesting to see how many people were trapped in the Hartwell manor after the blizzard. That’s not as common now as it was a few generations ago, and it gave this tale a slightly eerie and old-fashioned vibe that worked well with the cozy mystery genre in general.

What struck me as a little odd was the lack of technology in this story given its contemporary setting. I would have expected more characters to, say, check a weather app before the party and be better prepared for terrible weather or for someone to have a SUV or other method of travelling that could possibly power through the snowbanks. My assumption was that this must have been a storm of the century to prevent such a large crowd from using modern conveniences to either send for help or head into town, but it would have been nice for the narrator to go into a little more detail about why these things didn’t occur.

The character development was even stronger this time around than it was in The Blighted Bough. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that explored conflicts among the recurring characters whether they were mild, serious, or somewhere in-between. This is a perfectly normal part of belonging to any community, of course, and it was only amplified given the recent death and the storm that prevented anyone from going home or even spending much time at all outside when they were trying to better manage their emotions. Here’s hoping this trend will continue as I’m really getting to know these characters well.

The Brittle Blossom made me yearn for a sensible amount of snow for Christmas.

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The Blighted Bough by Jody Chaffin

September 28, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Blighted Bough by Jody Chaffin
A Larkspur Hollow Garden Club Mystery, Book 3
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

One golden harvest. One rotten secret. Forty-eight puzzles to the truth.

The apples are in and the whole of Larkspur Hollow has turned out for the Harvest Festival — the cider press running, the Green strung with lanterns. Then, on the second morning, Hal Bradley is found dead in the cider cellar. Everyone agrees it was a terrible accident: a careless man, a cellar full of working cider, one bad breath of air. Retired schoolteacher Eleanor “Nell” Ashworth is the only one still asking who put him there.

But this time, the detective is you.

Each chapter hands you a scene and a word search. Solve the puzzle, and the leftover letters reveal a hidden clue — a suspect cleared, a motive exposed, a secret the harvest was never meant to give up. Track them across forty-eight puzzles and you’ll be ready to name the killer, the motive, the means, and the place before Nell does.

No one can outrun the past.

As mentioned in my reviews of the first two stories in this series, I have previously had trouble with the limited character development in this universe. This is something I’m sharing yet again because I’m beginning to see signs of change in this area and I wanted to tip my cap to the author for this. While there’s still work to do as far as making the character well rounded goes, I did feel like I was able to get to know them better in the third instalment and am looking forward to seeing how they grow and change in the future as a result of living in a community where murders happen so regularly.

I struggled with the killer’s motivation this time around. It didn’t seem serious enough to warrant such a violent action, especially given how easy it would be to either hide what this person didn’t want to have revealed or to find people in town who would sympathize with them and not think of it as a scandalous thing in the modern age. As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, my difficulty understanding why the antagonist behaved this way was an obstacle to doing so.

With that being said, I loved the historical information about the 1920s and 1930s that was included about how certain parcels of land in this community were used back then. While all of the scenes were set in present day, the past influenced the characters in all sorts of creative ways. This is something that happens in real life fairly regularly as well across a wide variety of topics, so it was cool to see it represented in fiction.

The Blighted Bough was thoughtful.

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The Bitter Berry by Jody Chaffin

September 25, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Bitter Berry by Jody Chaffin
A Larkspur Hollow Garden Club Mystery, Book 2
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Preston Hartwell came home to Larkspur Hollow the golden boy everyone remembered. By the week of the Strawberry Social, he’d made an enemy of nearly everyone. By the end of it, he was dead.

Everyone calls it a tragedy — a good heart giving out in the summer heat. Retired schoolteacher Nell Ashworth calls it murder, and she means to name who’s behind it. But this time, the detective is you.

Solve each chapter’s word search, and the leftover letters reveal a hidden clue: a suspect cleared, a motive exposed, a secret long buried. Across forty-eight puzzles, you’ll gather everything you need to name the killer, the motive, the means, and the place — then find out whether you’ve cracked the case.

Six suspects. One sweet summer social, one bitter secret. A verdict only you can reach.

Nothing can conceal the truth forever.

While these can be read as standalone works, readers who stick to their publishing order will get to learn a little more about the recurring characters over time. I know I was pleased to meet up again with some familiar faces and figure things out about them that weren’t shared in the first instalment. This struck a good balance between encouraging new fans to join in on the fun while also rewarding its existing audience with some information that makes more sense to people who have already visited Larkspur Hollow in their imaginations before.

In my earlier review of “The Buried Bloom,” I mentioned wanting more plot and character development from these books, and I was happy to see the former be given more time to shine in the sequel. There were hints shared about aspects of this community that are such deeply concealed secrets I wondered if anyone outside of that particular family was actually aware of it. Had the recurring characters been given an equal amount of attention, this would have been an easy five-star read for me for sure. My fingers are crossed that I will be able to cross that threshold with a future review.

I adored the bittersweet mystery this time around, especially when it came to how differently a society might treat various members based on how much money or social standing they have. That topic is an especially good one for the cozy mystery genre due to how many different ways it can be explored. While I don’t want to accidentally give away any spoilers, other readers should take close note of how the various characters in this small town behave around each other and well as around outsiders. It’s something that I can only hope will explored more in future instalments of this series.

The Bitter Berry has only increased my desire to experience this entire series!

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A Beautiful Couple by Leslie Wolfe

September 24, 2026 By 1 Comment


A Beautiful Couple by Leslie Wolfe
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Ginger

Her husband killed someone. She’s the only witness.

Amanda Davis has it all: a beautiful home, a thriving career, and a charismatic husband who is the darling of television news. But when Paul kills someone in a disturbing accident, Amanda’s perfect world shatters. Pulled into a web of manipulation, deceit, and dark secrets, she becomes his unwilling accomplice, trapped in a twisted, dangerous existence that tests the limits of love and loyalty.

As the weight of the secret bears down, Amanda begins to see a side of Paul she’s never known—cold, manipulative, and dangerously unpredictable. His charm fades, replaced by a chilling determination to keep their secret at any cost. The walls are closing in: the police are investigating, strange events unsettle her, and Paul’s behavior grows more menacing by the day.

Trapped and isolated, Amanda realizes she’s not just covering up an accident—she’s become a prisoner in her own life. With her sanity and safety on the line, she must decide: How far will she go to escape the web of lies? And who can she trust when the one person she thought she knew best becomes a threat?

I really enjoyed A Beautiful Couple by Leslie Wolfe. One of the strengths of this book is the author’s descriptive writing style. The use of first-person narration made it easy to get inside the characters’ heads and understand their motivations, fears, and suspicions. It added an extra layer of tension as the story unfolded. The suspense kept me turning the pages because I was constantly wondering how everything would work out and whether one character would eventually turn on the other. The pacing was steady throughout, and I appreciated that the dialogue and internal thoughts felt believable, at times, I felt like I was eavesdropping on a real married couple.

Paul, the husband, was especially easy to dislike. As a charismatic and eye-catching television news personality, his polished public charm stood in stark contrast to his cold, manipulative private behavior, creating a major driving force for the book’s tension and making the character dynamics fascinating to watch unfold. The story also delivered a twist that I definitely didn’t see coming. It was very unusual, but in a good way making the ending truly memorable.

After finishing the last page, I found myself puzzled: in my haste to see how the author would wrap up this snowball of drama, had I somehow missed the explanation of who committed one of the murders, or whether there would be any consequences from the self-defense incident? Those unanswered details left me wanting a bit more closure.

Overall, this was an entertaining psychological thriller that kept me engaged from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend it to fans of suspenseful domestic thrillers, and I’m interested in reading more books by Leslie Wolfe after finishing this one.

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Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham

September 23, 2026 By Leave a Comment

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Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham
Publisher: Orion Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A freezing cold winter. A dead body from the past. A tale of love – and murder. A human leg is discovered in a suburban freezer. The victim is a teenage girl killed some ten years earlier. But then other body parts start appearing. And these ones are male, dark-skinned, and very fresh… Is this a tangled tale of love gone wrong? Or are there more sinister lines connecting the dead bodies to a recent tragedy in a Cardiff prison, and an engineering company that’s up to a whole lot more than is first apparent? Fiona Griffiths starts to investigate, in the midst of the coldest winter on record. Up in a remote cottage in the Welsh Black Mountains, she finds the data that contains the clue to the entire mystery. But, as the first snow starts to fall, she discovers that she’s not alone…

DC Fiona Griffiths is called to join in a very large team of Welsh officers when the leg of a dead young woman is found in the garage freezer of a deceased elderly lady. Soon, many other body parts of the woman is discovered in the neighboring suburbs and the body is identified as that of a missing young woman from ten years ago. Only a few clearly male body parts are also discovered and Fiona is drawn into a complicated puzzle.

This is the second book involving Fiona Griffiths and her unusual outlook and I enjoyed this one as thoroughly as the first. Readers should know that while this book can easily be read by itself – Fiona is quite a quirky character and this book might be easier to grasp having read the first. That said the plot and much of Fiona’s character growth is very well encapsulated in this story.

I loved the setting of Wales. This atmosphere felt quite a bit grittier and harder than many of the British police procedurals I regularly read. Fiona is also quite a complicated character and I find her perspective on things to be unique and highly enjoyable to read. I also clearly acknowledge that this very different perspective won’t suit every readers tastes. With a somewhat grim and non-standard outlook readers who enjoy a cozier style of mystery might not find this clicks quite right with them.

With a strong cast of secondary characters, a very different style of story being told and a strong and deliciously complicated series of murders I found this to be an exceptional book and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment. Recommended.

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Desert Star by Michael Connelly

September 18, 2026 By 1 Comment


Desert Star by Michael Connelly
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.

For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission.

The two must put aside old resentments and new tensions to run to ground not one but two dangerous killers who have operated with brash impunity.

It’s been a year since Detective Renee Ballard quit the LAPD, only to promptly return when offered her dream position. By doing so, she left Harry Bosch – and their joint dreams of working together – in the dust. Now, Ballard has reached out to Bosch, to request he join her new fledgling Open Unsolved division and help keep it alive. Can Bosch and Ballard return to working together when so much resentment still bubbles between them?

I’ve been reading this series for more than twenty years now, and still I find Bosch to be a gripping, page turning read – one that almost never fails to pull me out of a reading slump. Bosch is absolutely getting on in years now (aren’t we all?) and I appreciate Connelly not making Bosch able to easily run and jump and climb and do stuff virtually no seventy-something man can do no matter how fit or strong. Still mentally sharp, with decades of experience and the savvy knowledge of where to place one punch (instead of starting to brawl or chase) I found Bosch a joy to read.

Even though it’s set in modern – post covid – times, this book really retained that grittier, older style boiled detective feel that the series as a whole has always held for me. I felt the blend of old school and newer requirements was brilliantly handled. Things like a quasi psychic working on the team doing the genealogy/ancestry tracing online and through the web records mingled with Bosch’s knock on doors and well worn shoe leather really resonated with me and helped me turn these pages long past my bed time.

I also enjoyed how Ballard and Bosch both managed to work together while respecting each other’s strengths – and weaknesses. They can each be somewhat prickly and I remain firm in my opinion the reason they are able to work so well together is despite their differences in personality and approach, beneath it all they respect each other and value what they can both contribute. With that underpinning every step – even when they’re out of synch or frustrated with each other – there isn’t much they can’t both come back from with a bit of time, space and discussion.

Readers should know there is a wealth of history backing this series – it spans back to The Black Echo first published in 1992 – and I can thoroughly recommend this series as a whole for those who like a slightly gritter, more old school hard boiled police procedural series. That said, I feel this book can absolutely be read as a stand alone.

I feel the working relationship between Ballard and Bosch is well detailed as is the very cold case Bosch is determined to solve – and the carrot Ballard uses to lure Bosch onto her team. I do feel readers should be able to thoroughly understand and enjoy this book just picking it up by itself. But you’re missing out on an exceptional series if you’re not tempted to go back to the beginning and enjoy every part of this story. Highly recommended.

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The Buried Bloom by Jody Chaffin

September 17, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Buried Bloom by Jody Chaffin
A Larkspur Hollow Garden Club Mystery, book 1
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Thirty years buried. Forty-eight puzzles to the truth.

“Could such an interactive combination truly work? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes.'” — C.R. Hurst for Readers’ Favorite, 5 Stars

In the village of Larkspur Hollow, Vermont, everyone agreed that Cora Whitaker ran off in disgrace the summer of 1995. Everyone was wrong. Now her body has been found beneath the roses she once tended — and retired schoolteacher Eleanor “Nell” Ashworth is the only one still asking who put her there.

But this time, the detective is you.

Each chapter hands you a scene and a word search. Solve the puzzle, and the leftover letters reveal a hidden clue — a suspect cleared, a motive exposed, a secret the Hollow buried right alongside Cora. Track them across forty-eight puzzles and you’ll be ready to name the killer, the motive, the weapon, and the place before Nell does.

Six suspects. One garden full of secrets. A verdict only you can reach.

A complete solve-along mystery — no apps required. Just you, a pencil, and forty-eight word searches that build to a single solution. Perfect for cozy-mystery lovers and puzzlers alike.

Sharpen your pencil. Larkspur Hollow is waiting.

Unlike some plants, secrets can bloom anywhere.

It made me smile to see how small town politics played out in this mystery. While it isn’t strictly required to know about such things in advance, there were a few fun references to this cultural experience tucked here and there for those of us who have either grown up in such communities or who have other close ties to them. I was especially amused by the complex relationships between characters who had known each other for thirty years and sometimes much longer than that. They rang true and made this an even more engrossing read for me.

The limited amount of character and plot development was what ultimately lead me to choose a three-star rating. As much as I enjoyed solving the word-search puzzles at the end of every chapter and narrowing down my list of suspects, among other aspects of this case, there simply wasn’t much space for developing the characters or including as many plot twists as I was hoping to see. This is something I’m saying as someone who was excited to pick this book up and was hoping to give it a much higher rating. The framework for a potential five-star read was there, it simply needed to be fleshed out in order for me to feel justified in giving that rating.

With that being said, I loved the amount of audience participation that the author expected of his readers. This was the kind of tale that needed my full attention not only while I was in the middle of a chapter but also while I was writing down the clues and solving the word search puzzles. It was such a unique way to draw readers in and make this one feel as though I was playing an integral role in solving the case.

The Buried Bloom was an intriguing start to a new series.

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