Thank you for #NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a decent mystery, I thought the characters were good. The story was a bit slow. I am not sure I will be reading anymore from this author.

Maggie Walker has come back to her hometown for a fresh start - after he grandmother's passing she purchases her house but he cousin Simon is not happy with the inheritance. Carl Henson, a real estate developer, is constantly hassling her to sell the home and property. Maggie keeps pushing them both aside and is focusing on working with her friend Violet Blook to open a community garden. The day the garden is supposed to open a boot is found in the dirt, Maggie goes to pick it up but discovers it was not only a boot but a body buried in the garden. Violet is missing and never showed up to the opening. With the help of her friend Sally, Maggie sets off to find out what is going on.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC.

3.5 stars.
A dead body in a newly opened community garden and a missing friend (who is a generally super busy organizer of many things), and little information from police, propel main character and gardener Maggie Walker into taking matters into her own hands to figure out what is going on.

Maggie has returned to the small town of Marlowe in the Berkshires as she's looking to restart her life. A writer and gardener, she eagerly agrees to help Violet Bloom create a community garden in town, as she settles into her deceased grandmother's home.

All is not well, though. A local, pushy real estate agent keeps pestering her to sell, while Maggie's cousin Simon insists the house should be his, despite never having expressed any desire to purchase it when it was available. Also, Catherine Whitaker, wife of the Marlowe chief of police Sam, persists in saying pointed and unkind things about Maggie; this is longstanding behaviour, going back to when they were in school together.

Then, on the opening day of the garden, Violet is nowhere to be found and Maggie finds a dead body of the pushy real estate agent in a plot, leaving her shaken. Violet remains at large during the police investigation, with Maggie, and friend and neighbour Sally Kendall, doing their own sleuthing when Maggie feels frustrated by the lack of information released.

The two unearth jealousies, secrets, and motives, and eventually learn of various deals the dead man had on the go, and how his shenanigans affected people in town.

This was a pleasant story, with a likeable pair of amateur sleuths in Maggie and Sally. The small town atmosphere, full of personalities and gossip, was amusing and the story moved well, making this a fast and entertaining read.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This was a cute cozy mystery that had me entertained the whole time. I enjoyed the garden talk and the characters were well done. I did a combo audio/physical reading and enjoyed both. The ending was slightly predictable and I'm getting a little worn out of the "I'll just investigate myself" trope that is floating everywhere but, overall, a solid story that kept me entertained!

The Gardener’s Plot is Deborah J. Benoit’s debut novel and an award winning one at that. It follows Maggie and the other residents of a small town called Marlowe. Maggie came back to Marlowe looking for a fresh start, but that wasn’t in the cards for her. First she finds a body in a plot in the community garden and her new friend Violet is missing. She doesn’t think that the lead detective is taking her friend’s disappearance very seriously, so she and her best friend start retracing Violet’s last steps before she vanished. Unfortunately, that grabs the killer’s attention. Will Maggie and her best friend find out what happened to Violet and who killed Carl before it is too late? Read The Gardener’s Plot to find out.
This story was intriguing and a little bit different than I was expecting, but very good nonetheless. I can’t wait to read what else this author creates.

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

A light'ish mystery - not quite a cozy, but quite enjoyable. Maggie has lost her beloved grandmother and bought the house where she lived with her grandparents while she was growing up. Now that she is back in town, she is diving back into life and joining in where she can and that includes with a new town garden. Everything is going well until the day of the opening at the town garden and a body is discovered and the head of the garden, Violet, is missing. Maggie and her best friend start to look for Violet and look into the murder in the garden.

I really enjoyed this novel and Maggie adapting to being back in town and seeing people that she has a history with but hasn't seen in years. Add in harassments from her cousin about her owing him money for the grandma's house she bought and bullies from her high school. Maggie has quite a lot to sort out, but with the help of her best friend and taking the time to keep from getting too anxious, she can make it all work out ok.

⅘ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Gardeners Plot
Author: Deborah J Benoit
Mystery

This was a fun and unique read! Thank you so much Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC! “A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day”. This was the best one line summary of a book I have ever read. 😂. Maggie is a really interesting character. Honestly this book kind of reminded me of “The Maid” by Nita Prose. It was quirky and fast paced. It was definitely more of a cozy mystery, not a keep you on the edge of your seat, heart racing, palms sweating kind of read. You don’t read many books about gardening so this was fun! I would definitely read more by this author.

Maggie Walker spent summers at her grandmother’s home in Marlowe. When her grandmother died and the house was put up for sale it had been neglected and needed work, but with fond memories Maggie purchased it. An avid gardener, she became involved in her friend Violet’s project to create a community garden. On the opening day Violet never arrives to open the gates. With the gardeners getting restless, Maggie opens the gates to find a boot sticking up from one of the plots. It leads to the discovery of a recently buried body. Police are called and Maggie is questioned to the point where she believes that they suspect her. Violet’s disappearance also makes her a person of interest. This leaves Maggie no choice but to investigate to find and clear her friend. With the help of her neighbor Sally, she begins asking questions around town that could put them in danger.

This is Deborah Benoit’s debut mystery and she keeps you guessing. Maggie begins receiving prank calls, must face the town’s gossips and deal with a cousin who is threatening legal action regarding the grandmother’s property. A local realtor had also been pestering her to sell the home. He had been involved in a real estate scam and had a number of enemies in the town. Benoit sets her story in a small town that has a neighborly feel, but it also means that gossip passes quickly. Maggie has her supporters and is friends with Sam, the police chief. They once dated. Now Sam’s wife runs the local garden club and has become her nemesis. After getting to know the residents of Marlowe, Benoit reveals a murderer who comes as a complete surprise. While Maggie frustrates the efforts of the investigating officer to keep her safe, there is a hint of a possible romance that will leave you hoping that Benoit will bring Maggie back soon. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur for providing this book.

This would be perfect for someone who really likes to garden. Some of the desriptions and names of the plants as well as many of the gardening scenes just felt unnecessary to someone without an appreaciation for digging in the dirt.

There are definitely cozy mystery vibes here. The pacing is nice and leisurely.

I'd consider this to be a great palate cleanser between darker books or for when you want to read something that won't require a lot of brain power to follow along.

I read "The Gardener's Plot" by Deborah J. Benoit on NetGalley. The mystery of this novel occurs when a dead body is discovered in a community garden on opening day. Maggie is the one to find the dead body and her friend, Violet, is also missing. I really enjoyed this book, and can't wait to read more from the author.

This is a great series starter and well titled with a main character is a master gardener named Maggie/Margaret Walker. Maggie finds herself back in her hometown after 15 years, to settle her Gramma’s estate which included purchasing the family home where she spent so much of her life. While there was an offer on the house, Gramma’s heirs had right of first refusal and Maggie couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Maggie wasn’t the only one who wanted the house; annoying Cousin Simon and shiftless wheeler dealer Carl Henderson have been more difficult than invasive weeds each badgering her to sell for different reasons. Thankfully, Violet Bloom is keeping Maggie busy as her assistant for the city community park project. Maggie has never been busier, what with the disappearance of Violet, the death of Carl Henderson, and the endless nagging calls and certified letters from Cousin Simon. The other troublesome problem in the cozy town of Marlowe is that gossip is a major league sport and Catherine Walker is a heavy hitter. We have no idea why Catherine has such a strong aversion to Maggie but the past romantic high school history that Maggie shares with police Chief Sam Whitaker aka Catherine’s husband, doesn’t help.
This story does a great job of keeping you guessing and hoping against hope. I was hoping that Cousin Simon would give it a rest. There is humor, angst, a smidge of sassiness, a touch of sarcasm, and some ride or die friendship. This was a great series starter; at least I hope it is a starter and that there are more in the works. An entertaining cozy it is also educational with some great gardening tips right alongside of the clues that are sewn into the story.

A fun cozy mystery surrounding a community garden! I enjoyed this and hope it will lead to more in a series.

A cozy mystery surrounding the opening of a community garden.

For most cozy mysteries I've read, the main character always seems to have a former relationship with someone on the police force, or is otherwise able to charm their way into getting information out of them. This time however, Maggie met stone wall after stone wall in her attempt to get information. She was questioned as a person of interest several times, but when she tried to attempt the questioning, she met tight lipped advice that she let the police handle things.

Of course, Maggie needed to have her questions answered, and found herself trying to trace Violet Bloom's last day before her disappearance. After all the work she'd put into getting the community garden up and running, there's no way she would miss it. And when she continues to be unavailable, worrying her family, Maggie is furious that the police don't seem to consider it a priority to find her.

A great best friend, some mild gardening advice for those so green thumb inclined, and a small town feel. This hit all the boxes for a cozy mystery. I'm not fully in love with Maggie or the town yet, but I'll definitely be there for her next adventure!

Thank you to the publishers through NetGalley for the eARC!

The Gardener's Plot was my first novel by Deborah J. Benoit. I enjoyed her writing style. I don't even know if she has other books, but I will go check to see. It's a cozy mystery about some friends who garden, and I enjoy gardening so I thought this would be right up my alley.

Maggie Walker (an expert gardener who writes a gardening column for the local newspaper) volunteers to help her friend Violet Bloom set up a community garden in the Berkshires where she inherited her grandmother's home and when opening day arrives, Violet doesn’t show up. Then one of the gardeners notices a boot in his plot. The boot ends up being attached to a body! The police question Maggie about Violet, who seems to now be missing and they think Violet might be the murderer. Maggie does not believe one bit that her friend is the murderer, so she decides to do an investigation of her own. The amount of detail that goes into all the scenarios was quite good and I enjoyed this novel. I did guess who the murderer was before the end, but that's ok! It was definitely entertaining and the characters are well formed with a good flow to the story. I liked that the author did not give Maggie a love interest as it would have been too much for the story, since the focus was on the murder investigation. I hope a second novel comes from these characters, I would definitely read more!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and Netgalley for this Arc. I really enjoyed this book and laughed several times. This was the first book I have read from this author and I will be looking for more. I would definitely recommend this book.

Maggie Walker is starting her life over. After the death of her husband, she moves back to her hometown in the Berkshires. She loves gardening and gets the perfect job of setting up a community garden. She will assist Violet Bloom in this project. Opening day arrives, but Violet doesn’t. Maggie has no choice but to step in and take charge until Violet gets there. The gardeners are restless. Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the truth. She is hoping nothing has happened to her and that she shows up soon.

The author has written a mystery with many suspects. The storyline kept me guessing who was the murderer. I didn’t guess right about. who the murderer was. Its a cozy mystery that I hope will be the first in a series as I enjoyed it.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden. When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

I was amazed that this was a the author's debut mystery as it was so well written and paced well. I really liked Maggie as she was determined to find out the killer and find her friend no matter the danger. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this debut novel. I certainly hope she writes more and will be on the lookout for more by this author.

Enjoyed this small(ish) town cozy mystery. This one also gave me Finlay Donavan vibes. And I was totally here for it.

I really liked the gardening vibes. All the suspense and mystery definitely kept you on the edge of your seat. Couldn’t put this one down.

I kinda was hoping for a romance to blossom between the detective and Maggie.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

There is nothing better than a cozy mystery and this one truly hit the spot. I absolutely loved it. It was fun and easy to read and I really enjoyed using this as a quick break from fantasy. Easy to follow and easy to get swept into, Benoit makes this a book you will want to enjoy with an afternoon cuppa and a blanket. Definitely check this out!

I love a cozy mystery and this one seemed to have a lot of promise! Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me and I really struggled to get into it.