Spring's delights can also mean long days, adding gardening and strolling (maybe even without a mask, at last!) to the regular work week. So a really well-written cozy mystery is a gift to yourself -- and PUT OUT TO PASTURE by Amanda Flower (Poisoned Pen Press) fits perfectly.
This is Flower's second in her Farm to Table mysteries, and opens, of course, with a death. It's one of the significant community members attending the opening festival at Shiloh Bellamy's organic family farm. Despite the immediate disaster of a murder at a public event, Shiloh might have seen this one coming, since she'd only just commented to herself, "If anyone could make good on a promise to make another person's life miserable it was Minnie Devani."
When Minnie's death looks connected to a very public argument with Shiloh's best friend Kristy, and Shiloh's own family structure is threatened as well, it makes perfect sense for her to team up with the local investigation. Especially satisfying in this "cozy" are Shiloh's intelligence and sensible decisions -- a refreshing change from cozy protagonists who stumble from one mistake to the next. Shiloh's also good at speaking up for herself, and pushing past unpleasant people. When she can, she sorts things out with Kristy:
"I wonder who else knew Minnie well? There has to be someone in Cherry Glen who knew who Minnie was. If there wasn't ..."
"If there wasn't what?"
[Kristy] sighed. "If there wasn't, that's incredibly sad. Can you imagine living your whole adult life in a lie? I couldn't love like that. How can you go through life not being known for who you really are?"
I was far less the social butterfly than Kristy was, but I felt the same way. I wouldn't have been able to keep up the lie as well as Minnie had, or I didn't think I could. However, [...] not going to prison would be a pretty good motivation to keep my mouth shut. It clearly had been for Minnie.
Neatly plotted, smartly written, PUT OUT TO PASTURE is a great light mystery to relax with, whether your season includes digging a new vegetable bed or overhauling your wardrobe or saving the world (why not all three?). One small disappointment: no recipes at the end. But hey, you've got other books and websites for those, right? Although you don't need to read the first book in the series, Farm to Trouble, to enjoy this one, it might be nice to grab a copy for later in your own flowering season.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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