Description (from cover):'When a local doctor is found dead in Willow McQuade's medicinal garden, she must find the killer to clear her boyfriend's name in this third clever book in the Natural Remedies Mystery series.
Dr. Willow McQuade, owner of Nature's Way Market & Cafe, has put the finishing touches on a new medicinal plant garden for Greenport's annual Maritime Festival and is ready for the festivities to begin. But it's not all flowers and sunshine at the grand opening, when Willow discovers the body of another contestant, Dr. Charles White, face down in her garden.
Willow's hunky boyfriend, Jackson Spade, immediately becomes a suspect due to a recent fight with Dr. White. Willow knows she has to remedy the situation, but it won't be easy with the other applicants' vendettas and vandals wrecking her garden at every turn. And when she finds buried treasure in her garden that just might belong to the legendary Captain Kidd, the stakes become even higher. Was Dr. White searching for that treasure? Did someone kill him to get to it first? With the help of Jackson and her eccentric ex-boyfriend, Willow follows the clues to uncover the truth that someone wants buried...
But can she dig up enough evidence before she becomes the killer's next victim?'
My thoughts:
So this is the third book in the Natural Remedies Mystery series and I have read each and every installment in this series. It's growing on me, but sometimes I just couldn't get past the corny relationship parts in this book. I like Willow and I like the characters somewhat, but her relationship with Jackson, tends to get on my nerves a little. It is just annoying how cutesy they are and it just seems a little over done. I want to see some conflict in their relationship and not have it all be peaches and cream all the time. Sure, Jackson, is the main suspect in the murder in this story, but that just didn't seem like enough conflict to me.
I will say that this mystery had a lot of suspects and everyone had motive. It was a nice little puzzle to try to figure out. Towards the end though, the author starts drifting towards one suspect and the ending wasn't really all that much of a surprise. I would have liked a little more mystery in that area, but overall this book was a good read. My problems with this series before have been that the main character seems to give too much natural remedy advice, but in this one it really was muted and it didn't bother me at all. I actually found the herbs and their descriptions and uses at the beginning of every chapter to be quite interesting and informative. I learned a little something while reading this book and that is definitely something that I can appreciate.
Overall, not a bad book, but not something that left me raving about it at the end. I still think that the series needs some work and I really just need Willow and Jackson to not be so annoying. I am willing to give this series another shot because I actually like learning about the herbs and plants that the author incorporates into her books. I find it interesting and engaging at the same time. I just hope for a little more oomph in the next book.
Overall Rating: 3
Title: Garden of Death
Author: Chrystle Fiedler
Series: Natural Remedies Mystery #3
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publication Date: March 24, 2015
Pages: 400
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
About the Author:Chrystle Fiedler is a writer who specializes in alternative health topics and the author or coauthor of four nonfiction books: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Natural Remedies, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, Beat Sugar Addiction Now!, and the Beat Sugar Addiction Now! Cookbook. Chrystle made her fiction debut with Death Drops, first in its series. You can visit her webpage at www.chrystlefiedler.com
This has been a stop on the Garden of Death blog tour presented by Great Escapes Book Tours. Make sure you check out all the other stops on the tour as some are giving away copies of this book!
March 18 – Shelley's Book Case March 19 – Melina's Book Blog March 20 – deal sharing aunt March 21 - Girl Lost In a Book March 22 - Griperang's Bookmarks March 23 – dru's book musings March 24 – Marie's Cozy Corner March 25 – Lilac Reviews March 26 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews March 27 – Chloe Gets A Clue March 28 – readalot March 29 – Babs Book Bistro March 30 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows March 31 - Brooke Blogs
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Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through Great Escapes Book Tours, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
