[review] The Garden Club Murder by Amy Patricia Meade * book frolic

The Garden Club Murder by Amy Patricia Meade

The Garden Club Murder is book 2 in the wonderful Tish Tarragon series. The series features a literary caterer, Letitia ‘Tish’ Tarragon, owner of Cookin’ The Books Cafe and Catering, and her two best friends, Julian ‘Jules’ Jefferson Davis and Mary Jo ‘MJ’ Okelnsholt.

After enjoying any debut book in a series, I’m always a bit anxious to read Book 2 – it’s either going to live up to the hype or be a disappointment. And since I enjoyed Book 1 in this series so much (you can read my review of Cookin’ the Books here), I was both excited and nervous when Amy Patricia Meade contacted me to read and review The Garden Club Murder.

Title: The Garden Club Murder by Amy Patricia Meade
Author: Amy Patricia Meade
Series: A Tish Tarragon Mystery #2
First Published: September 3, 2019 (Canada/USA)
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Categories: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via NetGalley

*** Thank you to the author, Amy Patricia Meade, and the publisher, Severn House Publishers, for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

Tish is busy preparing her English Secret Garden-themed luncheon for the annual garden club awards at Coleton Creek (a retirement community). When the garden club’s president, Jim Ainsley, takes Tish on a tour to meet some of the top contenders and view their gardens, she is surprised at how seriously the residents take the awards.

Wealthy, retired businessman Sloane Shackleford has won the coveted best garden category five years in a row, but he and his Bichon Frise, Biscuit, are universally despised. When Sloane’s bludgeoned body is discovered in his pristine garden, Tish soon learns that he was disliked for reasons that go beyond his green fingers.

The Garden Club Murder is a worthy sequel in the Tish Tarragon Mysteries

The Garden Club Murder by Amy Patricia Meade

Part of the appeal of this series is the amazing feasts that Tish creates for her clients. I love the idea of a literary caterer and the concept of doing a luncheon with a Secret Garden theme to celebrate garden club awards is so whimsical and fun. Plus – sausage rolls, scones with real clotted cream and jam and mini Yorkshire puddings *drool*! It’s always a treat to see what menus Meade dreams up for her stories!

Honestly, I was daydreaming about the food while I kind of zoned out from the garden descriptions. Don’t get me wrong – the gardens sound lovely, but since I am the farthest thing from a green thumb (seriously people, plants hate me), I have almost no idea what any of the plants mentioned in the book look like so I couldn’t build a picture in my head of these (I’m assuming) stunning gardens. I could easily believe, however, that these gardeners would be ultra-competitive with each other. Ok, maybe not to the point of killing each other, but definitely competitive.

But not to worry – the gardens (kind of) take second stage once the murder (and murder-solving) starts up. After Sloane turns up murdered, there is no shortage of suspects – he was a womanizing bully who may have had some professional help with his garden. So, there were current and past girlfriends, fellow competitors, retirement community staff and ex-clients who had a motive to do away with Sloane.

Tish gets roped into the investigation, albeit unwillingly, as many of the suspects seem to be willing to open up to her. In fact, even Sheriff Clemson Reade, seems willing to share case info with her in the hopes of catching the killer.

Digging a bit deeper into the trio’s personal lives

A side story (well, three side stories) that are happening while the murder investigation is going on is the personal lives of our trio – Tish, Jules and MJ. I really loved this trio in the first book so it was nice to get a bit more into their lives (although it wasn’t really happy rainbows for everyone). The personal drama of the main characters did not detract from the main story at all but added to the dynamic of the storylines. P.S. Jules is by far my favourite character!

Tish, who is still refusing to acknowledge that gorgeous attorney Schuyler Thompson is the perfect man and may possibly be her ‘official boyfriend’, starts taking some serious steps in the romance department.

Jules, on the other hand, is feeling a bit lonely and starts to behave… shall we say, oddly? He starts hanging around the retirement home and even starts making plans to move in with one of the residents!

Meanwhile, poor MJ’s homelife is unraveling. Her husband of 20 years reveals that he’s been having an affair (with a MUCH younger woman) and wants a divorce. He seems like a jerk, basically ignoring his two kids as soon as the announcement is made and heading out of town with his girlfriend, leaving MJ to pick up the pieces.

It’s interesting that the three friends all have to deal with relationship issues, but all from VERY different standpoints. It was an emotional rollercoaster – I was happy for Tish, wanted to rage at MJ’s stupid husband and wanted to shake some sense into Jules!

A new experience with a cozy mystery

Oh right, back to the mystery. Without giving anything away (I hope), let me just say that the ending was… surprising. I honestly didn’t really see this one coming (maybe I was more distracted by the trio’s personal issues than I thought!). There were tears, dear reader, TEARS. I have never, in my life, cried while reading a cozy mystery, so this was a first for me! Am I getting emotional in my old age? Perhaps, but I prefer to think it was some brilliant heart-string-tugging writing by Meade. I didn’t expect the emotions but hey, I’m glad that cozy mysteries can still surprise me like this!

Here’s hoping that there’s much more to come in The Tish Tarragon Mystery series because this is one series I’d love to read for many years to come!