The Gardener's Plot by Deborah J. Benoit is a wonderful mystery novel. It has a little bit of everything— a missing garden director, a dead body found in the garden, a family estate being contested. This book feels like a cozy mystery and readers of this genre will enjoy the quirky characters and their past histories. Mystery readers won’t be able to put down this whodunnit. Pieces of the mystery keep emerging at regular intervals and there’s even some action, more than most cozy mystery novels. I really enjoyed this book. It made me nostalgic and reminded me of watching Murder She Wrote growing up. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

The Gardener's Plot is a well written, engaging debut cozy mystery by Deborah J. Benoit. Released 5th Nov 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats (paperback due out in early 4th quarter 2025). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

Garden themed small town cozy. It's full of the quirky characters, gardening trivia, and small-town drama that readers expect. The murder mystery is self contained in this volume, and there are overarching character development threads which suggest this will be the first of a series.

It's a debut effort, and as such, it's not as polished and doesn't feel as complete as a series standing on its own merits with 5+ books extant. Worth a look for readers who enjoy garden themed cozy mysteries with female amateur sleuths. (MC Maggie is bloody lucky she will be *around* for book two, but it's not too farfetched for the genre average overall). The characterization is not highly developed, but hopefully the author will revisit the background in future volumes.

The denoument and resolution are, again, quite outlandish but not -way- too much for the genre. Readers should come equipped with a robust suspension of disbelief.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours 38 minutes and is capably read by Patricia Santomasso. She has a professionally trained neutral Middle-Atlantic accent reading voice without intrusive quirks. Warm, but unobtrusive. She does characters of both sexes and a range of ages seamlessly. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

This would be a good choice for public library acquisition, or for fans of garden themed cozies.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Gardner's Plot is an entertaining cozy mystery. The setting and characters really make the story, I have an ARC but for some reason I forgot to review it. It's a quick, easy, enjoyable book. If it's not the start of a series it should be.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my review copy.

“A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plot's on opening day.”

Meet amateur sleuth and master gardener Maggie Walker who finds herself in a tricky position of hunting for a killer before more harm is done. Fans of cozy mysteries set in small-towns and lovers of gardening will enjoy this fast-paced new mystery. I grabbed this on audio and it was a quick listen. I didn’t immediately warm up to Maggie, but enjoyed her company by the end and felt like I understood her more. A fun-spring time read.

I enjoyed this read I love that Maggie the narrator lives next door to one of her best friends. The small community shares the familiar dynamic of Everyone knows everyone else's business is relatable and endearing.
The community garden started by Maggie and Violet gave the book a sense of community. When Violet does not arrive at opening day the reader feels like you need to know where this friend is.
Fun read.

I love gardening and cozy mysteries so this was the perfect book for me. It even made me look into composting! I enjoyed the characters and the various conflicts going on throughout the story.

I've already recommended this book to a few friends who share similar interests.

The Gardener’s Plot is (hopefully) the first book I’ve read by Deborah J. Benoit. The mystery itself seemed engaging enough, particularly because it uses a community garden as the main crime scene. Guessing the murderer was also fun and not as easy as I thought it would be. While I did enjoy the characters, things got a bit confusing at times. It would have been nice to see them more flushed out, but they were still interesting. Overall, I found the story to be a good one. It’s a book I would recommend for those interested in a cozy mystery where the setting serves as its own character, the mystery is engaging, and the story is a quick read.

I loved the idea of a mystery with some gardening! The book cover immediately drew me in. I really enjoyed the dual story lines

Cozy mysteries have a special place in my heart. This is such a charming story, though it deals with a murder. Small-town sleuths motivate me to devour a story. This was so well written, and I loved the use of deduction.
I am not a gardener, and I don't enjoy playing in the dirt, but I did enjoy this story and the characters. A good cozy is such a palette cleanser, and after some of the thrillers I've been reading, this was the perfect sprinkle of humor, charm, intrigue, and mystery. If you like a well-done " who did it" without the weight of a thriller, this is the perfect balance.

I enjoyed this. Some of the characters ran together, and I had a hard time keeping them straight. I would continue reading more if it was a series.

This is the first book by this author that I have read. I enjoyed it very much. Maggie is back in Marlowe, the town where she has many fond memories. She loves to garden and is trying to settle into the community. What better way than to help Violet Bloom establish a community garden. However, on the day of the grand opening, Violet is nowhere to be found. What is found is a body buried in one of the gardening plots. The police are wondering where Violet has gone and Maggie is afraid they think her friend killed the man. She likes Violet and feels sorry for her family. So Maggie decides to ask a few questions and see if she can't find another suspect for the police.

It's a fun mystery and provided me with a nice way to spend an afternoon. The story held my attention and kept me guessing. I liked Maggie and the people of Marlowe. There is a bit of a twist at the end.

The Gardener's Plot by Deborah J. Benoit in quick, rapid-fire thoughts.

-a light and airy read (for a murder-mystery!)
-main character Maggie seemed super naive for a good chunk of the book
-(and looking back, I wish she had more personality)
-character name "Violet Bloom" fit in perfectly within a gardening-based book
-oppositely, "Sam Whitacker" was a familiar sounding character name
-Maggie seemed to have luck on her side, with everything working in her favour
-similar feeling plot to other mysteries I've read lately
-I had fun guessing the perpetrator
-perfect cozy mystery for spring

All in all, this was a decent debut with a beautiful cover!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy to read and review.

Thank you to Minotaur & Netgalley for the arc

Finding a body in the plot of your community garden isn't the best way to adjust to a new life but it's what happens to Maggie. This was a charming debut novel combining small town cozy mystery with a gardening twist. However, the author used zero physical descriptors for her characters and it was an odd choice for me and took some adjustments.

This was one of the more entertaining cozy mysteries I've read recently. I liked the characters and the setting. The story moved a little slowly at times, but it held my attention for the most part. I don't know if this was the start of a series, but a potential sequel would at least make its way onto my maybe/not absolute TBR list if it appears.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

"The Gardener's Plot" is a small-town murder mystery with Maggie Walker at its center.

Maggie grew up in the town, but moved away when she became an adult. After the sudden death of her soon-to-be ex-husband a year earlier and her grandmother's recent passing, she comes back to town to heal her wounds and live in her grandmother's house, a place she knew and loved well.

When she and her friend Violet prepare to open the town's first community garden, everyone is surprised to find a dead body buried in one of the plots. But when Violet also goes missing, Maggie and her childhood friend, Sally, decide to try to locate her by retracing her steps.

Despite frequent warnings from the detective investigating both the murder and disappearance, Violet and Maggie seem to make a bit of headway, only to end up in the killer's crosshairs.

Overall, the story is fairly well done, but for whatever reason, I just never really connected with the main character. I enjoyed the story, but that disconnect meant I didn't love it. Too many of the characters seemed flat and two-dimensional and some connections just didn't make sense. For example, Maggie's nemesis happens to be the wife of another of her childhood friends, Sam. While Sam seems like a nice, personable, caring guy, his wife is your stereotypical mean girl, even as an adult. So, the relationship just makes no sense.

Thank you to Deborah J. Benoit, the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Maggie, along with her neighbor and friend, Sally, are curious, concerned about missing Violet. Maggie has just discovered a body, well, a boot, in the new community garden. She has a concern for the missing Violet. Soon Maggie and Sally are chasing clues and asking questions. A tale of their pursuit and where it leads them--into danger. Read to find out what happened, why it happened, and who did it.

When Maggie Walker buys her grandmother's house in the Berkshires and returns after the loss of her husband she also returns to her love of gardening. But when a body is found in the community garden Maggie and her friend Sally are determined to try and solve the mystery and stay ahead of the killer.

A cute cozy mystery that I enjoyed. I did figure out who the killer was but it was an enjoyable read and I will be looking for more books by this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this book.

A delightful and captivating read that weaves mystery with charm. I loved the quaint village that was the setting and also the characters, each with their own quirks and secrets. The plot was good with a few twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Maggie is back home in the house of her beloved grandmother. Maggie has had a few setbacks in her life but if she thought things would be smooth, she was sorely mistaken. She volunteers to help lead a community garden group with Violet but the day the garden was set to open, there is a body discovered in one of the plots. Violet is nowhere to be found and since the deceased had been making a pain of himself trying to coerce Maggie into selling her home, she becomes a suspect.

Things do not improve when her childhood nemesis accuses Maggie of all sorts of evils including murdering her brother, who happened to be the corpse. The fact that Catherine is the wife of the chief of police and her husband, Sam, was a former beau of Maggie does not help. The fun has just begun and the detective investigating the murder is a gruff no-nonsense sort. His biggest concern is Maggie is asking a lot of questions with her friend Sally. When the two discover Violet’s body in the woods things get too real and Maggie is determined to back off.

Circumstances conspire to prevent that and Maggie gets close to the Darwin line when she pokes the killer once too often. The plot was pretty straight forward without any real twists but it still had its moments of intensity and proved to be an entertaining read. Four purrs and two paws up.

A quick cozy mystery read. Possible room for a follow up with Maggie and the sheriff. I received this as an arc with no pressure for a positive review.