'Things really go to seed in the newest novel in the New York Times bestselling Book Retreat mysteries...
There is a hidden garden bordering the grounds of Jane Steward's book-themed resort--a garden filled with beautiful but deadly plants such as mandrake and nightshade. Tucked away behind ivy-covered walls and accessible only through a single locked door, as described in the pages of Frances Hodges Burnett's classic novel, the garden is of special interest to Jane's current group of guests, The Medieval Herbalists. But when one of them turns up dead, Jane must discover whether a member of the group has come to Storyton Hall to celebrate their passion for plant lore or to implement a particularly cruel means for murder.
With thousands of books at her disposal, Jane believes she has the property materials to solve this deadly problem. If she's wrong, however, she may lose something far more precious than the contents of Storyton's secret library...'
My thoughts:
When you find a cozy mystery series that you really enjoy, you tend to get excited when a new book releases in the series. When this book released recently, I was excited to read it. I really have come to enjoy reading any book by Ellery Adams as she is a fantastic cozy mystery writer. This series and the Books by the Bay series have to be some of my favorite cozy series. I love reading mysteries with a bookish theme. I am a book lover after all. It was nice to return to Storyton Hall. In this installment, Jane is hosting a group of guests who have labelled themselves as The Medieval Herbalists. The guests in this group all have a fierce passion for plants and this includes poison. When one of the guests is poisoned and dies, Jane has a whole house full of suspects. All of the suspects have worked with poisonous plants and it seems all of them are acting suspiciously.
Jane is determined to seek out the killer before the reputation of Storyton Hall can be damaged. She uses the help of her friends to find out who had motive, means and opportunity and the list is quite long. She must weed out the killer before she finds herself or someone she cares deeply about hurt or worse. With a slew of suspects, she must race against the clock to find a devious killer.
I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as the others in this series. I had a little harder time getting into this one. I felt that the other books in this series focused more on the books and this one did do that, but not quite as much. There is a lot of story line and character development in this book which is setting up the series to move forward. Not my favorite in the series, but still a series that I enjoy very much. I am curious to see how things happen moving forward and what the author has in store for Jane and her sons.
Overall Rating: 3.5
Title: Murder in the Secret Garden
Author: Ellery Adams
Series: Book Retreat Mystery #3
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.