Review

Camellia “Cam” Harris and her best friend Annie are planning a murder-mystery themed fundraiser for a local politician. Since the Roanoke, Virginia Garden Society is hosting, flowers are must-have for the decorations. When the group is done, the setting looks beautiful and Cam and Annie are pleased. Then tragedy strikes and their scripted murder mystery is upstaged by a real murder and a kidnapping. The kidnapping hits close to home, so the two friends decide to do their own investigation into the two shocking crimes. Annie’s detective boyfriend Jake isn’t pleased, but Cam, her boyfriend Rob, and Annie won’t give up until they learn the truth.

I like the Cam being part of the garden society and part that plays in the book. I found the information shared about flowers at the beginning of the story when Cam is helping plan the fundraiser to be interesting. Since the book is about a society garden club, I thought it would focus on older women, so I was surprised the two main characters of the book are young, single women. It worked well and I’m glad it showed younger people can be interested in plants and gardening just as well as older people. I was also surprised, but disappointed, that only the beginning of the book has anything about gardening. Once the murder mystery dinner ends, there isn’t a lot about flowers in the rest of the book.

The plot of the book is interesting, and I enjoy Cam and Annie’s friendship, as well as Cam’s relationship with Rob, who is a reporter. Cam and Annie are there for each other, no matter what, and Cam and Rob make a great couple and a great investigative team. I don’t care for Annie’s boyfriend Jake, who is too rigid in following rules and a little bit boring. It helps that Jake isn’t Cam’s favorite person either, so it’s good to know I’m not the only one who isn’t a fan of Jake.

Unfortunately, one big negative about the book is that the writing is sometimes unclear and the characters often talk in circles. For example, while looking for clues in a remote area, Cam is wondering if she can trust someone that is with her and her friends. “On a whim, Cam picked up a long stick and dragged it along on the ground as she went. She turned back to look and was glad to see a clear line in the dirt and leaves.” I have no idea how seeing the line in the dirt proves the person didn’t leave by walking in another direction, so I was confused by this.

In another scene, Cam and Annie are stenciling the nursery in a gender-neutral design for Cam’s pregnant sister.  “Ducks, huh?” Annie said. “So they aren’t finding out if it’s a boy or a girl? Cam’s reply is “Petunia doesn’t want her baby to be railroaded.”  It’s fine if Cam’s sister wants to be surprised by the gender of her baby, but how would finding out “railroad” the baby? There are few passages like this that I tried reading and re-reading and was still confused. This was frustrating and greatly slowed the pace of the book and took away from an interesting plot. Since most of the characters are likeable and the plot is good, fans of Kate Collins may want to give the book a try since there are good points to the book that others may enjoy more than I did.

Reviewed by Christine