Maris Morton

Another romantic suspense novel, THE HERB GARDENER combines a rural setting, a new love, and a dead young worker.

City girl Joanna moves, with young daughter Mia, to a farm to be with her new boyfriend Chris on his farm. Learning to deal with the remote location is complicated considerably by the suspicious death very near to the station. Alongside the investigation elements of this book, there's little gems of life on farm as well, including the complications of changing crop / farmy style in a time of changing climate and markets.

Whilst obviously it's another example of crimance, and therefore not this reader's preferred tipple, another local book which would be worth a read if you're a fan of this sub-genre.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-herb-gardener-maris-morton… (mehr)

In "The Herb Gardener" by Maris Morton, after a painful divorce, Joanna is leaving the city with her daughter, Mia to spend some time cooking at a farm for her new love interest. It seems a sort of trial run to see how things go, and if they do well, perhaps she will become a farmer's wife and start a new life. The reader is introduced to new characters beginning as soon as she arrives at the farm. As she is struggling to adjust to the setting, a murder is discovered and the road to uncovering the perpetrator's identity reveals the truth about many of the people living in Joanna's new world.

"The Herb Gardener" became an interesting mystery and look into a different place. Maris Morton's descriptions were vivid and detailed. The story branched out into enough directions to be puzzling. The characters were diverse, and engaging. Mickey, who worked for Chris doing some renovations, was such a unique individual. My female favorite was Allie, from the neighboring farm. Her bold and intense characteristics stand out in my memory above most others. Joanna's handling of her attempts to become friends rivaled the efforts to discover who the murderer was as most entertaining. Another of the best parts of the book was learning about how things work on a farm in Australia. As the story wound down, and mysteries were solved, the ultimate in justice served or maybe karma gave a final added enjoyable twist that left me smiling.

Originally reviewed for Readers Favorite Book Review and Award… (mehr)

It was the last page that pushed this to a 4 star book and gave me a good laugh to boot. The language was a lot of fun just trying to figure out what the heck things were that they were talking about, lots of tongue twisting and quirky Australian words, sayings and phrases!
The story starts with Joanna and her daughter Mia driving down a dirt road in the country looking for an address or driveway to a farm, they are on Holiday and will be staying with Joanna's new boyfriend Chris. Chris has inherited the family farm and is making renovations so he needed some help and Joanna offered to come and cook to help feed the workmen who will be on the job, Joanna being a city girl and a teacher by trade, has her doubts about how things will go.
From the first page the story just jumps right in. There is no lengthy or tedious backstory and I found that extremely refreshing because you get to know the characters as the story unfolds.
Joanna finally finds the driveway to the farm with some help from a hunky guy she meets along the road named Jessie, who as it turns out also just happens to be working for Chris. Unfortunately for Jesse he turns up dead from poisoning which has everyone who knew and liked him wondering who and why would somebody do this to him?
Was it his secret girlfriend or maybe her short tempered husband? Maybe it's one of the towns people who are growing pot on their land? Could it be the sex crazed town whore or maybe her husband?
The Chief of police, his wife along with Joanna, her daughter Mia, Chris and some unusual & quirky friends try to solve the mystery of who killed him and why. This mystery might or might not be solved to everyone's satisfaction.
For me the best parts of the book were the descriptions of the countryside and all the wonderful and strange food Joanna cooked and the great characters in this book. An all around great read. however, I was upset with Joanna and how she handled the Charlie and the chocolate thing...really?… (mehr)