Pru Parke moved from Texas to England to pursue her dream of being an English gardener. She found an affordable home to sublet and began accepting odds and ends gardening jobs. She gave herself one year to find her dream job, but that year is almost up. Mrs. Wilson offers her an opportunity to transform a neglected garden, but Pru finds a mosaic appearing to date to the Roman period in the garden's shed when she digs. When she comes back the next morning, she discovers a body. She becomes a little too involved in the investigation and finds she enjoys the inspector's company. Will her nosiness get her in trouble? Will she find a job, or will she return to Texas?

I enjoyed listening to the audio version of this book. It was the perfect type book for my commute to work. While the book is not without fault, the recurring characters are enjoyable. The solution did not seem all that realistic, and the author needs to work on developing some lines into red herrings. Hopefully the next installment will improve. ( )

This is the first book in the Potting Shed Mystery. I had read the others in this series, but missed the first one so went back and listened to this one. Pru Parke wanted to find out if she had any family in England, so she gave up her job in Dallas, Texas and gave herself a year to live in England and find a permanent job as head gardener at a private estate, Her hope was to be able to stay in England permanently. When her mother died, she had no family left in the U.S. so felt that England was where she was meant to be. When she is working on designing a garden that has become overgrown, she stumbles upon a mosaic on the floor of the gardening shed. The next day, she finds a body.

Author Marty Wingate has created a character who is somewhat naïve and even gullible at times. Pru ends up helping the detective, Chief Inspector Pearse, and someone thinks she knows more than she does. The mystery was very well constructed initially, but began to slow down somewhat in the middle of the book. There was a lot going on that seemed irrelevant, but ends up that they were clues to the murderer. The relationship which developed with Detective Chief Inspector Pearse was a nice addition to the plot and allowed Pru to have access to some information that might not have been so easily obtained. The gardening information is well done in the novel for those readers who are interested in gardening and yet not overdone to be a deterrent for readers uninterested in the subject. Hopefully future books will continue to allow the reader to be an armchair traveler to other great gardening and historical sites through England. I did enjoy this story and there is a wide scope for subject matter to be featured in future novels. This is a nice cozy mystery series for those who enjoy the English setting and more staid mysteries. ( )

Pru Parke used to dream about living in England. All her life, she'd avoided close ties with everyone but her parents, particularly her English mother. Texas never felt like home to her. So, several years after her mother's death, Pru decides to quit her job, move to London, and get a job as head gardener somewhere. She manages the first two things easily enough, but finding a head gardener position proves to be even more difficult than she expected. After nearly a year of one temporary gardening job after another, she has a mountain of rejection letters and will soon have to move out of the flat she's been renting.

Her latest temporary job has the potential, she thinks, to grow into something more permanent. Her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, seem like kind and welcoming people, and Mrs. Wilson clearly misses her old home and garden. It's possible they might hire her to turn their mess of a backyard into a proper garden, if they like her work. Pru does as much as she can in the short time she's been given, and her efforts uncover part of a Roman mosaic...and also a body.

I wasn't sure what to make of Pru, at first. Although she was in her early 50s, she seemed impulsive enough that I kept mentally picturing her as a twenty-something. It took Wingate far too long to explain Pru's family history and establish that she really did have a connection to England - her move wasn't completely out of the blue.

I liked Pru well enough, despite my somewhat rocky introduction to her, and I was emotionally invested enough in her to worry about her employment situation and what would happen if she didn't manage to get a job in time. Of course, considering that this was the first book in a series, it was pretty obvious that something would come along. Even so, the rejection letters the book was peppered with made me wince for her each time.

I didn't immediately peg DCI Christopher Pearse as Pru's potential love interest. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who'd date a woman who was in any way involved in one of his ongoing investigations. But he kept reappearing, and the way he and Pru butted heads just a little had "romantic subplot" bells ringing in my head. I was willing to see where it would go because I thought his combination of overly stiff demeanor and nerdy love of badgers and hedgehogs was kind of cute.

Unfortunately, the more Christopher and Pru progressed as a couple, the less I enjoyed the book. It seemed like Christopher was being positioned to be Pru's knight in shining armor, constantly having to save her in order to show her that she didn't have to do everything herself. There was one bit of trouble I could see coming from a mile away - it was obvious that Pru was being maneuvered and was too trusting for her own good. I was a little surprised that that incident didn't cause her to doubt the other things she was absolutely sure about, like her insistence that Mr. Wilson couldn't possibly have killed anyone and her belief that the noises in her flat were just due to mice (she heard whole pieces of furniture moving! what kind of mouse moves furniture?). The further I got into the story, the more foolish Pru seemed.

I also felt that Christopher handled Pru's numerous instances of interfering or butting into his investigation better than she deserved. Fairly early on, he lectured her about her habit of playing amateur detective. I had thought (hoped) she'd learned her lesson, but she proceeded to screw up again, in a pretty big way, later on. Pru was shaking and in tears when she finally decided to tell him what she'd done, and I was sure he'd decide to put a bit of distance between the two of them, leaving room for their relationship to be mended in the next book, or whenever Pru needed a knight in shining armor again. Instead, he basically just patted her on the back and told her it was okay. It really threw me.

Erin Bennett's narration was appealing and usually pretty good, although there were a few times Pru's Texas accent slid a bit too much in the direction of Bennett's regular reading voice. I also wondered what a native Texan would think of her accent for Pru, although I suppose any oddities could be explained away as being due to Pru's mother's influence. Bennett's narration is one of the main reasons why I think I'll be giving the next book in this series a shot, despite my disappointment with Pru's worryingly frequent moments of stupidity.

Since this was a gardening-themed cozy, I had hoped there'd be some good gardening details. There were a few, but unfortunately Pru didn't really get a chance to shine, considering most of her work involved clearing the mess in the Wilsons' backyard and occasionally talking about roses with their neighbor. I'm looking forward to seeing Pru in a more stable situation in the next book, where she'll maybe have projects she can see through from start to finish.

Additional Comments:

I noticed several grammatical errors, usually involving incorrect uses of the word "whom." I was able to confirm that at least one of them was present in the original text, so I don't think they were examples of Bennett misspeaking. Here's hoping that the next book has fewer distracting errors.

Rating Note:

I feel like I'm probably giving this book too high of a rating. I doubt I'd have given it over 2 stars if it weren't for Bennett's narration.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Pru is from Texas but her mother was English. After the death of her parents there is no reason to remain in Texas and she moves to England as she has wanted to do for a long time. A trained and experienced gardener, she is giving herself one year to find a permanent position as Head Gardener at an estate. When the book begins, her year is almost up and she is still taking whatever gardening jobs she can find. It's not for want of trying, she has sent lots of resumes out and has received many no thanks letters in return.

One afternoon while starting work in a new customer's garden she goes into a shed and finds two interesting things, a partially uncovered mosaic in the dirt floor that looks Roman and a dead man's body in a corner.

The characters are well developed, dialogue good and I learned the English names for several plants I know by other names. I also liked the tie to Roman art and history. Otherwise it's pretty much written to the cozy formula but it's a fun plot and a nice diversion from real life. ( )

Gardener Pru Parke is hoping to start a new life in England. She is hoping for a job at a historic property, restoring an historic garden, but jobs are hard to come by. Pru has been able to pick up a few private clients, including a couple who have hired Pru to redo their back garden. In the course of digging, Pru discovers potential ancient Roman artifacts. Amid the excitement of possible Roman ruins, a dead body winds up in the back yard, and Pru discovers it. As the murder investigation progresses Pru is also dealing with a strange sense that someone has been in her house, as well as the ever-stressful campaign to find a permanent job.

I understand that this was WIngate's debut novel, and it's a really good first book. The mystery is solid and doesn't suffer from the cliches that often plague cozy mysteries. I love the setting in the world of English gardens. The romantic elements don't overwhelm the mystery. They're understated. Very British. I will definitely continue to read this series. I've seen other reviewers say that this book is a cut above the average cozy mystery, and I wholly agree. ( )