CHRISTMAS AT GREENOAK an utterly charming English Christmas mystery (The Potting Shed Mysteries) by MARTY WINGATE

This was a mystery that made you think.  She saw a man that was at the end of the stalls and she bought some of his plants.  But when she went back he wasnt there any more.

She keeps looking for him.  Most of the other vendors didn't see him.  When she found him again, he remembered her.

It's a short story that has lots of twists and turns.  I enjoyed it.

THE SKELETON GARDEN an utterly charming English garden murder mystery (The Potting Shed Mysteries Book 4) by MARTY WINGATE

Pru got a  home and a new husband.  She has the home for a year.  She and her husband work on making it look like a garden.

Unfortunately, they find a plane and a skeleton in the yard.  The skeleton has no ID.

Pru and her husband try to find out who he was.  

It takes some work but eventually they figure it out.

It is an interesting story and the murder is out of identity.  It was a good read. 

Midsummer Mayhem: A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate

There is going to be a live performance at the house down the lane.  Pru has never seen the gardens because the grounds are fenced and locked.  But the gardener there has walked off because of the crowd and the disruption and Pru has been asked to fill in.

Alibi and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published November 6th.

Pru works on figuring out which plants and trees to use.  She also works on playing matchmaker between an estranged couple.  All is going fairly well until one of the actors is found dead.  Someone locked him in a room with a jar of bees and he was deadly allergic to them.

Pru snoops about on the set trying to find out who would have killed him.  Her husband, Christopher, is there in his official capacity.  No one is getting close to the truth.  Then, all of a sudden, Pru is too close... 

Every Trick in the Rook: A Birds of a Feather Mystery by Marty Wingate

Julia's life is going well.  She's organizing events and bringing tourists to town and she's living with Michael, a man she loves.  She should have known it was too good to be true.  When they find a dead man in the unused summer house on the castle property, she wonders why he was there but she should be wondering who he was.  It was her ex-husband...

Alibi and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 7th.

When the press descend on Julia and Michael, he decides to leave for a while and take a break.  He thinks that will keep the journalists away from Julia.  He's mistaken.  And Juliet is afraid he might not be back.  As it is, as long as the case hasn't been solved, she can't ask him to come back.  Since they are looking at them both as suspects, she decides she better look for the actual killer.

Ms. Wingate always peppers her stories with weird characters.  That makes the story interesting and fun to read.  I mean, how often does the ex-wife to keep the ashes of her long gone husband by his sister?  And who's to guess that the weird journalist might be a new partner with her gay brother?  Or that her ex-husband had such a strange girlfriend?

As you live through events, watch relationships rise and fall, and work out who the killer is, you're well entertained.  I especially loved the rook that was in the story.  He was her protector and she needed one.  This one is the best one I've read in this series.  Ms. Wingate does it right.

The Bluebonnet Betrayal: A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate

Pru has an excellent opportunity.  She's been invited to help set up a Texas display in Chelsea Gardens.  It will be part of a gardening competition in an exclusive site that means a lot to even be chosen to display.  It's to be a natural design, with rocks and plants native to Texas.  It'll even have bluebonnets!  She's excited and happy to be included in the setup, but she quickly learns her part in this design will be greater than she was told.  After all, the original designer is late...

Alibi and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 2nd.

I really like this series.  Pru is an interesting character who has many facets to her personality.  I like her relationship with her husband she found later in life and the brother she didn't know she had.  But if there's trouble around, Pru will find that, too.  When she finds the designer in the middle of the display with a pile of rocks on her, she keeps asking questions until she gets in trouble, too.  Good thing she took her husband with her...

These are cozy type mysteries with a touch of green.  Gardening is a featured item but the mysteries are good, too.  The author keeps you thinking and wondering and makes the story dangerous enough to be exciting.  

She had her gardening group come ahead of her and Pru has picked up some comments from them that show jealousy, envy, and other base emotions.  When she figures out one of them was her half-sister, she wonders how well they got along.  When she comes up with the reason for the death, she comes very close to death herself.  Who would have guessed such an oddball character could be deadly?

The Skeleton Garden: A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate

When Pru and her brother and nephew begin digging up a portion of the garden, they find a body.  She doesn't have to go looking for trouble; it finds her...

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 15th.

Pru is married to a cop (they're still in the honeymoon stage) so she knows what to do.  The body has no identification, just a ring on a bony finger.  Who he is remains a mystery.  Then there's another death...

All this ties back to the end of WWI.  There's a German plane under the body.  Pru and her husband begin investigating.  I enjoyed the addition of a young nephew.  He's a hacker as well as a wonder with the web.  He proves useful in the story.

This is a good story that is well written but I had a feeling who the killer was.  It's more fun to be surprised but the ending is still surprising.  There was more drama than I would have imagined and it made it more exciting and interesting.

I like this couple and their relationships with friends and relatives.  Pru and her brother fight a bit.  So does Christopher and his sister.  Nobody gets along all the time so it makes it more of a realistic read.  I'm already looking forward to reading her next adventure.

Empty Nest: A Birds of a Feather Mystery by Marty Wingate

Julia loves her job.  Managing the tourist center is a lot of work but it's very rewarding.  The only difficulty comes when her cottage is found to be moldy and she has to move in the big house.  Her boss has a crush on her and she doesn't want to be lady of the manor.  She wants to be with Michael.  But you do what you must...

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published December 1st, so you can grab a copy then.

What causes the most trouble is the long lost son coming home with a friend.  He's a nice enough young man but he wants to know all about Julia's plans for the future.  He's planning on taking over the castle later in life and wants to learn about it now.  The man he brought home with him is more of a con artist than anything.  Freddie is not popular.  But when Freddy suddenly dies, it appears someone did more than dislike him.  It was murder.

Even the best families have their secrets.  Julia would prefer not to know them all but murder makes her nervous.  Who could have hated him that much?

The more questions she asks, the more danger she gets in.  And when she refuses to tell Michael about a male friend's secret, he stops going out with her.  The worst part is the friend lied.

With poisoned birds and one poisoned man, new family and managers coming on board, romance problems, and lots of impulsive activities, Julia is very busy in this story.  The author moves the story along with hints here and there, but while I knew what was suspicious, I didn't know who the killer was.  Neither does Julia...

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate

She didn't get along well with Ian (he felt like she bought her way in to university) and didn't like him much, but she didn't expect him to get killed.  Who hated him enough to do that?  Was it connected with the journal she was trying to authenticate?  

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published tomorrow, so you can get a copy now.

Pru is an interesting character.  I've been following this series and they have all been good reads.  Her policeman fellow, Chris, has gotten brave enough to ask her to marry him.  She's accepted.  She doesn't know anything about weddings.  It's a good thing she has friends.

She's trying to prove the additional journal pages that been discovered do belong to an important man who identified a lot of plants.  That takes a lot of time, searching a lot of references, running down letters that might tie to events in the journal and mostly reading the journal over and over looking for clues.  While she's doing this, Ian dies and she's getting fitted for a wedding dress.  The first wedding dress was a disaster.  So was the second one.  And no one has no clues on the killer.

As the time for the wedding comes closer and the strain of trying to find a church and preacher for an immediate wedding are getting more critical, Pru gets too close to the truth.  Suddenly she knows who the killer is and she knows how and why Ian was killed.  However, she might not make it to her wedding...

The Rhyme of the Magpie: A Birds of a Feather Mystery by Marty Wingate

When her father marries a long time friend shortly after her mother died, she moves out and finds a new job.  He can do what he wants but she doesn't have to like it.  She'll do tourist management instead.

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It's the beginning of new series for the author and it was published June 2nd.  You can find a copy now at your local bookstore.

I've read Ms. Wingate's series about gardening mysteries (and I like that one) so I was interested in seeing how she did when talking about birding.  She builds a good story around that, too.  I'm very pleased with this first novel.

Julia hasn't had a lot of tourism experience but she has done a lot of planning and knows how to organize events.  This shouldn't be too hard to do if the owner will support her.  They can do castle tours, have special dinners on the streets with vendors participating, do a Farmer's Market, have special events and more.  

Her problems begin with a missing father (right after she's had a big fight with him) and a developer trying to sway her boss.  She thinks her father can take care of himself, but when she thinks she knows where he is and finds a dead man instead it shakes her up.  Might that happen to her father next?  Was he the one who killed the man?

Ms. Wingate's words flow well and her stories make sense.  They are bit whimsical but it's a pleasant touch with all the passion and politics going on.  Julia learns to accept her father's new marriage, finds herself a man (there's misunderstanding there too), and helps put the bad guys away.  The ending is dramatic and I wasn't sure who was going to win there for a few minutes but the suspense and the finale were worth it.

Give this one a try.  I'm already a birdwatcher, so I had fun with the bird identifications as well as the mystery.  I might even like this storyline better than the gardening one, but I've got another one of those to read as well.  It's such a chore when you have two books by the same author and they're both good reads, isn't it?

The Red Book of Primrose House A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate

Pru is now the head gardener at Primrose House.  It was her dream and now it's a reality.  The only bad news is that her boyfriend (she prefers "fellow") is still in London.  They have to put up with weekend visits when one of them can make the trip.  The job is rewarding, she loves gardening, and she now has an opportunity to look for long lost relatives.  But being away from Chris is killing her...

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published, so check with your local bookstore for a copy.  Be sure to grab the first book in the series, too.  I really like Pru who is an excellent gardener but a not so great a detective.

Pru works with a young man who has the mind of a ten year old.  She keeps him busy digging holes for her, which he loves.  When he goes to find Ned and comes back and says he thinks he's sick, she rushes to see.  Unfortunately, nobody can help Ned now.  She tries to get Robbie away from him without alarming him and calls the cops.

It doesn't take long for Chris to find out what's going on.  He's concerned, asks her to stay out of the investigation, and he tells her how worried he is about her.  She appreciates his concern but losing Ned means she has to work more hours and she somehow finds herself a bit involved in the investigation.  Mostly because the police are arresting the wrong people.

You have a nice young cop and a snotty overbearing inspector who has no tact.  The young cop shares some facts with Pru when he can but the inspector is rude and just tells her to say out of it.  That's what he tells her fella, too. Everyone seems to be lying in one form or another.  When it seems someone is out to get Pru, Chris gets really upset. 

I enjoy this series.  Pru and Chris are a sweet couple.  Pru is a Texan who is trying to find her roots and what she finds shocks her.  She ends up solving another murder mystery, but she almost dies doing it.

I wonder what the author will have her up to in the next book?

The Garden Plot by Marty Wingate

Pru has left Texas and her job and gone to her "roots"; she's living in London and has a year long lease on a house.  Her plan is to find the perfect job and stay in London.  Her job search isn't going that well, though.  And then she finds a murdered man!

Alibi and Net Galley let me read this story for review (thank you).  It will be published May 6th.  If you like cozy mysteries, you won't want to miss the start of this new series.

Another thing Pru left behind was her old "sort of" boyfriend.  She doesn't miss the job or the fella but her goal is to get a permanent job so she can afford to live in London.  She keeps getting rejection letters and her spirits are down.  When she takes on a local job and there is a buried mosaic inside the shed, she's interested in the history behind it.  So are a lot of other people.  Some of them want it for personal gain.

The only good part about being involved in the murder is that she meets the police inspector.  He's attractive and single.  He's also always lecturing her about her questions meddling in his case.  He keeps telling her it's dangerous for her to be involved.  She's so sure who isn't the killer, she doesn't pay attention to who might be.  That's a very bad move on her part.

The gardening knowledge shared is interesting and accurate, the plot holds your attention, and a romance develops between Pru and Christopher, the police inspector.  Every chance they have to go on a date, something comes up and they have to cancel.  Pru decides she'll have to go back to the states since her lease is running out and she has no regular job.

One of my fun things in this read was Pru learning the English's nicknames vs American nicknames.  Also, I loved how the author ended this story.  It was a last minute happy ever after and it made such an impression on me I have pre-ordered this ebook as the very first ebook to be a "keeper" on my hand-me-down Kindle.  I'll reread this story and take a bit more time to savor it later.

The best part is that Pru will be back again.  You can watch for more from Ms. Wingate.