Princess Fuzzypants here: I have enjoyed the Potting Shed stories a great deal and this latest one is no exception. This time Pru is asked to do the staging for an open-air Shakespeare play at a local Estate. The regular groundskeeper has resigned in a huff and Pru’s services are needed quickly. She enlists the help of her part-time assistant as she is asked to do more and more. Slightly star struck, she is only too happy to comply.
One of the things she does not expect is the murder of the young male lead. His death by bee shocks the entire company but it clearly means one of them is a killer. Who is it who knew the actor was highly allergic and trapped him in a closed room with angry bees? And who is next on the list? What possible motive could there be for such a horrible crime?
Pru and her husband Christopher are great characters. She is a smart cookie and he is not adverse to listening to her observations. She never oversteps but it still leads to plenty of suspense and thrills. It makes for a good mystery. I confess I suspected the killer but the reasons behind his murderous ways still surprised me. I enjoy that.
Four purrs and two paws up.

Quite enjoyable and charming. It was subtly engaging and while I figured out who the culprit was right away, I like how it was revealed slowly.

Dreaming of Shakespeare

I love the practical approach of "the gardener," observing without interfering with her police detective husband's investigations. Unlike so many "cosy/cozy" mysteries, due process is observed, police procedure is followed, and the amateur's insights assist rather than replace official efforts. Not having to suspend disbelief, I was able to simply absorb the clues as presented, playing the "whodunit" game while fully enjoying the clever twists and turns of the plot. It helps that the main characters are thoroughly likable so one is pulling for their success and concerned for their safety. Plus there is the play within the play for added enjoyment. Solidly entertaining! (Hah! AND I managed to figure out the villain from the clues!]

Pru Parke is thrilled, and maybe a little intimidated, to find herself in charge of the grounds of a private estate. The regular gardener quit in a huff after losing patience with the Shakesperean troupe that will be putting on A Midsummer Night's Dream on the grounds. At first, Pru's enthusiasm is over having access to the gorgeous gardens that have always been concealed behind locked gates, but she quickly gets caught up in the excitement of the upcoming production...and then in a murder investigation after one of the performers is found dead.



I've enjoyed all of the Potting Shed mysteries, including this one. The mystery kept me guessing and not knowing a single thing about A Midsummer Night's Dream didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.

This seventh novel in the Potting Shed Mystery works just fine as a standalone.

Pru Parker migrated from Texas to England to pursue her gardening dreams. She and her detective inspector husband live in a small town and Pru has plenty of gardening jobs to keep her busy. She is contacted about acting as a botanical set designer for an outdoor production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and jumps at the chance.

But the production is soon marred by the apparent murder (by bee-sting) of one of the male cast members, who was noted more for his womanizing than his acting talent. While her hubby offically investigates, Pru is sniffing around behind the scenes talking to cast members to provide some background on all the parties involved.

This series is nicely done and the theatrical play setting makes it extra interesting. Pru is a well-drawn character and this mystery is well-paced. There are a lot of characters to keep track of given the actors in the cast, but they sort themselves into individuals pretty quickly.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoy the potting shed mystery series. This one introduced a private garden near where Pru and Christopher live where a Midsummer Night’s Dream is going to be out on. Pru gets involved to help with living plant set items and gets pulled into the drama surrounding the cast and crew.
There are a large number of characters to keep track of in addition to the usual village people and friends that have played a role in past mysteries. The cast member who dies was a lothario and it was more difficult than normal to care who killed him. However, the reason and why he was killed did turn out to be pretty interesting.
The way the author ended the book was a bit odd but did make me laugh. The story is done well enough that you could pick up this book without having to have read the others in the series.

This is a cute, fun cozy mystery in the Potting shed series. Wingate does such a great job with characters and keeping the reader flipping pages.

The title of this one seems like kind of a double-pun to me. First, the mystery takes place during the rehearsals for a production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. But I also have the feeling that Greenoak, where amateur sleuth Pru Parke and her husband, D.I. Christopher Pearse, live, runs just second to the more famous Midsomer County in the number of murders per capita.

The Midsomer connection feels particularly apropos for this entry as one of the more famous members of the Shakespeare troupe has appeared on Midsomer Murders multiple times. (Truthfully, I suspect that every working actor in Britain has appeared on Midsomer Murders multiple times, whether on the way up, or on the way down. Just as every working New York actor has had multiple appearances in the Law & Order franchise!)

Pru Parke may have been bitten, just a bit, by the acting bug back when she was in school, but she makes her living as one of the estate gardeners at Greenoak, along with her older brother Simon.

Still, that long-ago bit of wishful thinking makes Pru an excellent candidate for set decorator/gardener/general dogsbody for the outdoor Shakespeare production that has taken over the extensive gardens of the closed-up estate next door.

That estate’s regular gardener is a bit of a recluse, and not all that fond of people in general – or actors in particular – and has taken himself off in a huff, leaving the Shakespeare company in the lurch and the estate’s owners in a bit of a pickle.

Pru steps in to fill the breach, with no idea what she’s letting herself in for. Only that one of the stars of the production is an actor that not only her late mother, but every woman of a certain age in town, had a crush on back in the day. (And if Ambrose Grant isn’t intended as an homage to Hugh Grant, I’ll eat a bouquet.)

While Pru is an expert gardener, she is in a bit over her head with the set design, at least until murder enters the scene. When it comes to figuring out whodunit, Pru has become rather expert – a fact that her police detective husband both adores and regrets.

He’s happy that they met in the middle of Pru’s first murder investigation, but always worried when she finds herself in the middle of yet another case.

Because her investigations, as helpful as they usually are, also usually put her right in the middle of the murderer’s path. A path that the murderer is usually determined to clear of all impediments – especially Pru.

Escape Rating B: The Potting Shed mystery series has been fun from Pru’s first outing in The Garden Plot. One of the things that makes this cozy mystery series so enjoyable, at least for this reader, is the character of Pru herself.

The series is Pru’s journey, and it’s been a fascinating one so far. It’s all the more lovely for it being a journey of a woman of a certain age starting her life over at midlife. Pru left behind a successful career in Texas to follow her heart, and to follow her mother’s footsteps back to England.

Along the way, Pru found a new life, fell in love and married, and discovered her long-lost brother. For those of us who are also of a certain age, it is fantastic to have a heroine who represents us, and who exemplifies all of those old cliches about being as young as you feel and that life begins at any age.

The background of this particular case was interesting. Putting on a play, or filming a movie, always makes for a scene rife with over-the-top personalities under high pressure, and provides a backdrop where a disparate group of people congregate to accomplish a goal without necessarily knowing each other.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself is a play within a play, and Midsummer Mayhem comes very close to being a play within a play within a play. There are certainly lots of players who know of each other if not actually know each other, lots of pressure, plenty of secrets, several illicit affairs and even long-lost lovers – and that’s just among the cast.

In that hothouse environment, it’s not really a surprise that someone ends up dead. Especially someone who seems to have been an complete ass – and not the kind portrayed by Bottom in the play.

It’s not a question of why the man is dead – it’s more a question of winnowing down the rather long list of suspects. I’ll admit that I guessed whodunit fairly early on. The fun in this particular case was in figuring out whether those two long-lost lovers would manage to figure out that they belonged together after all.

Just as in the play, a good time was had by all – except the murderer and his victim – and in the end, a lovely story is told, both to the audience watching the production and to the readers of Pru’s latest adventure.

It's MIdsummer in Hampshire, and the villagers are agog over the outdoor staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the garden of a local country house. The garden is never open to the public, as the owners are absentee and the resident gardener is reclusive. American transplant Pru Parke is excited by the prospect of finally seeing the garden and the villagers by the casting of a telly star of years gone by. The gardener is upset, however, by the actors trampling around his treasured garden and abruptly quits. When Pru is offered the opportunity to be the "stage designer' by advising on and providing plants for the performance she jumps at the chance. Pru is even a little stage-struck herself.



The company, Shakespeare au Natural, is led by Max Sterling, a legendary director who has been out of the business for some years due to the terminal illness of his beloved wife. He hopes the production will re-start his flagging career. Max is a person of great charm and charisma, and he is supported by a group of old friends who are also hoping Max can succeed. Most of them have worked together for years and have a tangled web of personal relationships both as friends and former lovers. There are some new additions of younger actors, but most seem to be dedicated to making a performance to remember. The one exception is the actor playing Lysander, who is both a womanizer and lacks a work ethic. When death strikes the company, inveterate sleuth Pru, abetted by her police inspector husband, Christopher Pearse, is in a prime position to untangle the web of relationships.

It's hard to believe that this is the seventh in the Potting Shed Mysteries, a series that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Pru and Christopher are likable characters who gather friends and allies wherever they go. The mixture of gardening lore, mystery, and a little romance, this time with theatrical settings, make another great read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Alibi for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

There are those people who want to be actors or actresses but only in their hearts. They are the ones that insist on sitting in the back rows of the theater. Then there are those who would love a little part in the play but don’t want to be seen. Being in charge of and designing the plants for scene setting is just the thing for Pru since she is a master gardener. This is a story about gardens and Shakespeare and acting. Although it could sound stuffy it most certainly isn’t. I found it read quickly and was entertaining. I loved the gardening talk and the plant names and so forth and I sure could picture the beautiful gardens and overall landscaping they were to perform the play in. I am not a Shakespeare person but there was not enough of him to get me yawning. I also loved the talk of all the food the cook sent to the green room every day. Good grief I was running to the frig constantly. This is a fun mystery with some twists and turns. The plot was a little different which was enjoyable.
There were a lot of characters, and yet I had no trouble knowing who was whom, so to speak. There is nothing wrong with the amount of characters an author places in his or her story. The problem for me comes when they are not identified well enough for me to learn the personality of or see a picture of each one of them. I just hate having to turn back the pages thinking “well who was this guy” and so forth. It sure didn’t happen to me here.
I had no trouble reading Midsummer Mayhem. It is Book 7 of a series titled “A Potting Shed Mystery”. All have good reviews.
***This book was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are definitely my own.

Midsummer Mayhem is a delightful Cozy Mystery. Pru is in it again, this time helping out with a Shakespeare theater company's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Part gardener part set designer she has her hands full and finds herself once again in the middle of a murder mystery. The producer and cast are great characters, and as usual Pru deduces all the clues and figures out who the murderer is along with her Detective Inspector husband Christopher. I love Marty Wingate's Potting Shed Mystery's.

I give Midsummer Mayhem 4 stars for its delightful read.
I would recommend this book to cozy mystery fans.

Shakespeare in the garden and a murder - what more does one need? The cast of characters were wonderful. The setting was gorgeous. The mystery had plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

What a delight to visit Pru, her husband, and friends across the pond! I always look forward to a new cozy in this series, and Midsummer Mayhem satisfies the anticipation. Pru, a gardner, is helping at a nearby home with several acres of gardens; the huge lawn will be an open-air theater for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The characters are well-defined, at times witty, at other times serious, and hard-working when needed. The gardens sound beautiful, colorful and pleasing to the nose as well as the eyes.
Prunella “Pru” Parke is from Texas, and her mother originally from England. Pru wanted to be where her beloved mother came from. After her midlife career change, she graduated with a degree in horticulture, and accepted a small position in England, leaving behind a lifetime of good friends. Pru gets better positions as she completes assignments, and meets and marries Christopher Pearse, now a detective in the Hampshire police office. Pru learned she has a brother, Simon, who grew up in England, and they begin to make up for a lifetime apart.
Midsummer Night has a former soap opera star, Ambrose Grant, a director making a comeback, Max Stirling, and an eclectic group of performers. It sounds as if the Bumbling Blokes and the little Fairies will be the most fun. An actor is found dead, locked inside the gardener’s cottage. It is determined to be murder for the man playing Lysander – whose off-stage behavior is more like Lothario. He was found in the study with the door locked from the inside, the cottage door locked from the inside, with no discernable way for the bad guy get out. The play must go on, and Christopher and Pru decide that, with officers collecting evidence on the grounds, Pru will be safe and able to hear any talk amongst the actors. She has many plants to care for, scenes to set, and the Fan Club of Ambrose Grant (aka her sister-in-law, Reverend, and housekeeper/ cook) to keep happy.
I love the banter that Pru, Christopher, Evelyn, Polly, and Simon have. To see Pru and Christopher and how far they have come from when they first met is delightful! Hal, Simon and Pru’s assistant, is probably the most unknown of the regular characters. Each is defined as much as necessary per their role. Pru and Christopher are my favorites, with Evelyn, Polly, and Simon next in line.
This series gets better and better, from the latest gardens, to Pru and Christopher, and the investigation effecting Shakespeare Au Naturel’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is heartwarming to see how the cast worked together to help the director who had given many of them their start on the stage, the romances off stage, and camaraderie of most of those on and off the stage. I have not read this play, so it was interesting to see lines from it at the start of each chapter. The plot has many twists that invite the reader to follow a few red herrings. I did have an idea who the bad guy was but couldn’t imagine why, so I very briefly followed another herring. In some ways, the bad guy was still a surprise! The finale brought many surprises, fun and otherwise, making it a satisfactory in every way. I highly recommend this novel to fans of earlier novels in the series, those who might enjoy Shakespeare, garden settings, or visiting England, and all who appreciate very well-written cozy mysteries.
From a grateful heart: I received a copy of this e-Arc from the publisher and NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

Midsummer Night’s Dream Staged in a Garden with the Added Spice of Murder

When a troop of players plans to stage Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Coeur-de-la-Mer Priory Hall garden that is normally closed to the public, Pru is excited. She has always wanted to examine the garden at close range. She becomes even more enthusiastic when the gardener at Coeur-de-la-Mer quits because he can’t stand the people trampling on his plants, and she is asked to take over his responsibilities.

The job starts well. Pru is responsible for set design as well as maintaining the garden. Luckily she has a new helper Hal Noakes who is able to pick up the slack at Greenoak as well as at the Priory Hall. Pru enjoys the players with the exception of the young man playing Lysander. He’s lazy, difficult and thinks he’s God’s gift to women. When he becomes the victim of an allergic reaction that turns out to be murder, Pru and her detective husband, Christopher, have to find the killer before the play is ruined.

As usual, Marty Wingate writes a fun mystery with a beautiful setting. The country house gardens are perfect for Midsummer Night’s Dream. I love the descriptions of the plants and how Pru chooses the plants for the stage sets.

It helps to be familiar with Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are a great many characters and at first the dual names are challenging, but the author tries to help by often using just the character’s name. Although the cast list is long, the story sorts out the bit players and after the first couple of chapters it’s easy to remember who’s who.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries in a great setting, this is a good one.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Pru Parke is excited to take over the gardening duties to help prepare for an outdoor performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at a private estate. Even though it's a daunting task, Pru loves the gardening and the fun of seeing the actors rehearse for the play. However, when a philandering cast member is murdered, Pru is enlisted to help her husband, DI Christopher Pearse, weed out the killer from a large list of suspects.

This book is the seventh book in the Potting Shed Mystery series, but readers can easily jump right in without having read all the prior books. If you like this book, you may want to check out the first one in the series to see how Pru and Christoper met and how an American woman from Texas ended up as a renowned gardener in England. Some of the books in this series go into a lot of historical background, which is often interesting but sometimes slows the pace of the story. This book goes easy on the history lessons, but does have a lot of information and lines from Shakespeare's featured comedy. The play is important to the mystery, but don't worry if you're not familiar with it. It's been years since I've read the play and the author does a good job of including the necessary background.

Pru and Christopher are both likable characters and I love when they work together on investigations. This time, Christopher welcomes Pru's help since her work on the play gives her an inside track into the witnesses and potential suspects. They make a great team, so I was disappointed when at one point, Pru withheld an important clue from her husband until she made more inquiries. She eventually filled Christopher in and things worked out, but I didn't like that she did this, although it does make her seem human since she isn't perfect.

The author does a great job of adding light moments to the story that make the characters come alive. It was cute and easy to relate to when Pru's friends beg her to introduce her to one of the actors in the play who used to star in their favorite soap opera. The investigation goes in circles for a while, so these entertaining extras help make the book more fun to read. I guessed the identity of the murderer before Pru did, but I was way off on the motive , so there were some surprises for me at the end. In spite of the problems in the production, ultimately the show must go on and the ending is cute and satisfying. Fans of the series and fans of English cozy mysteries will enjoy the latest by Marty Wingate.

I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Random House/Alibi. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

This is the seventh in author’s Potting Shed series cozy mystery series.


Prunella Parke is a gardener on an estate in Hampshire. Her small town is all atwitter because an acting company will be staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the gardens of the huge estate outside town. Pru’s friends can’t wait to see the famous actor Ambrose Grant, she, on the other hand, can’t wait to see the gardens. She is pressed into being gardener to the play and then set designer. When one of the actors is killed, Pru’s huband, DI Christopher Pearse, investigates the crime. And, of course, Pru can’t stay out of the investigation.

This book proceeds at a leisurely pace full of all kinds of details about the actors, the play, different kinds of gardens, and, of course, plants and trees. In the midst of all these details are snippets of clues about what will come. Mystery readers will undoubtedly begin trying to figure out who will die and who the killer is long before the murder actually occurs because, after all, this is a mystery.

The writing here is good, but what impresses most is the amount of detail the author goes into and how long it takes her to get to the murder.

Even though this is the author’s seventh entry into this series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone book. Wingate does a good job giving just enough backstory so the new reader isn’t completely at a loss of who is who in the series characters, and since Pru doesn’t know any of the actors, she is also at a loss to keep the actors, and the characters they play, straight.

Over all, this is an interesting and carefully plotted cozy that will delight those who love this series and those who have chosen to use this book as their introduction to the series.

Once again gardener, Pru Park finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery. When the gardener of a nearby estate quits after he is unable to deal with the demands that an outdoor production of A Midsummer's Night Dream puts on the landscape, Pru steps in for him. The company putting on the production enlists her to help in their set design, which puts her right in the middle of the action when one of the actors is murdered. Many of the cast have possible motive's and Pru uses her position to help her inspector husband find the murder suspect.

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...

Midsummer Mayhem is the seventh book in Marty Wingate’s Potting Shed Mysteries. Gardener Pru Parke is asked to take over gardening duties as well as set decoration for the Shakespeare Au Natural troupe using nearby Coeur de la Mer Priory Hall to stage their outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With a literal cast of characters, Pru is caught up in the project, learning the names of the characters rather than the names of the actors.

Although Pru notices the inappropriate moves the actor playing Lysander makes toward every woman he encounters, she never expects to find the young actor in the shape he is found. Who would have known of his severe allergy and who would have stolen his counteracting injectors? And who would have taken this even further to harm others?

The answer to these questions isn’t stumbled upon until the very end. Pru and her husband, DI Christopher Pearse, make the discovery in the nick of time. This is another good tale in the Potting Shed Mystery series and I do recommend it!

This is an entertaining mystery. I really enjoyed it. I haven't read the other books in this series, but I will go back and read them now. Pru gets mixed up in an outdoor production of Midsummer's Night Dream. All is well until the productions Romeo ends up dead. There are so many who had a reason to want him dead, but is it an old grievance or something new?