chez_jae

Pretty Poison by Joyce Lavene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I have yet to post a review for a book I finished Thursday night. Guh. It was Pretty Poison by Joyce and Jim Lavene, and it's the first part of the "Garden Mystery" series. The main character is widowed Peggy Lee, who owns a garden shop in Charlotte, NC and also teaches at a local college.

Although it's not yet Thanksgiving, Peggy is already thinking ahead to the holidays. Thoughts of getting her shop ready for Christmas, however, are derailed when she's involved in a minor bicycle-automobile accident, a young Great Dane barges into her life, and she finds a man, murdered in her shop. It turns out the victim was one of the wealthiest men in town, as well as a known philanderer. The police are keen to pin the crime on a local homeless man, but Peggy doesn't believe he'd kill anyone. As she tries to determine who really killed Mark Warner, she realizes that any of the women in his life (including his wife) could have done it, or any jealous husband.

In the meantime, a former co-hort of her late (police officer) husband has contacted Peggy in regards to a murder elsewhere, in which the manner of death was poison. As a specialist in botanicals, Peggy is uniquely suited to consult on plant-based poisons. In addition to everything else she has going on in her life, Peggy seems to have attracted the unwanted attention of a cyber-stalker who goes by the name of Nighflyer. Lucky for her, she has friends to rely on, as well as a new romantic interest.

There were plots on top of plots in this story. Unfortunately, they did not weave together seamlessly. I usually enjoy cozy mysteries more when the narrative is not completely consumed with the investigation, but in this case, there was simply too much going on. Peggy's character was fully-realized; the others were less so, but one can hope that changes as the series progresses. While I liked the story for the most part...( Spoilers )

Favorite line: "Don't worry. The old people of the world who are still having sex aren't going to come after you."

Hm, not sure if this deserves a three or a four, so...

( Trope Test )

Okay, based on the trope test, this one claws its way up to a four.