Classic cozy mystery with theme related murder and lots of red herrings that will keep your mind off your own troubles. Maggie is a likable character with good friends and some frenemies leftover from growing up under her grandmother’s care in the town of Marlowe, to which she has returned to rebuild her life. The pacing is inconsistent at times, but generally fast-paced and a quick read. I enjoyed my time in the town enough to visit again when / should there be a second entry in the series as there’s lots of room for Maggie and the other characters to grow and reveal to us.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for early access to this book.

Title: The Gardener's Plot
Author: Deborah J. Benoit
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: November 5, 2024

I received complimentary eARC and ALC copies from Minotaur Books, a division of St. Martin's Press and Dreamscape Media via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Light • Cozy • Pleasant

📖 S Y N O P S I S

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.

💭 T H O U G H T S

As an avid gardener, the cover and title of The Gardener's Plot made this an easy add to my 2024 anticipated releases list. I don't read too many cozies, yet I was in need of a light palette cleanser after several fairly dense reads, and this one was the perfect fit.

Told through Maggie's voice as she tries to solve what really happened for a body to turn up in the community garden plot, the plot moves along with a consistent pace with clues being offered up at just the right time. From the start, it's easy to see Maggie has the personality for amateur sleuthing. While there are hints at a romantic relationships, to me it wasn't at all believable and would have been best left out of the plot altogether.

I really loved the idea of the community garden being the center of the plot. The idea was different and not like any cozy I've read before. It was also enjoyable to get some background and helpful tips on successful gardening. I wish a little more of the story had actually taken place at the garden.

The audio, narrated by Patricia Santomasso, was simple and made for easy listening. Her voice is clear and she manages to use different intonations to distinguish when different characters are speaking/thinking.

The Gardener's Plot had many of the makings of your typical cozy mystery, yet it could have easily been shorter and been just as effective. Deborah delivers a solid debut, and while I could see it being turned into a series, I think it would be better left as a standalone. I'd be curious to see what she does write next.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• cozy mysteries
• gardening
• female sleuths

⚠️ CW: murder, death, gun violence

What a cute garden themed cozy mystery! Along with the mystery it was actually pretty informative about plants as well, which I loved! As someone who loves gardening and plants, I loved the combination of cathartic gardening with a juicy murder mystery! The story flows very well and the characters are loveable. :)

The story follows the lead, Maggie, who is just trying to leave her old life behind for a simpler one. When, of course, her new “simpler” life is anything but that. After finding a body in the new community gardening plot and her friend missing, she can’t keep from uncovering the truth. Uncovering the truth may prove to get her into some thorny situations. (lol)

The story was nice and I loved it for exactly what it was: a cozy mystery. There were no great twists or crazy revelations. I enjoyed the details about gardening, tea making, gossiping, baking, and all the other tid bits that come with living a more quiet life. Would recommend to those who also like this sort of reading. :)
.
.
ʏᴏᴜʟʟ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
•cozy mystery
•plants/gardening
•small town feel
•murder mystery

This is a fun cozy mystery, perfect for either spring or fall reading. It’s set in the Berkshires and revolves around a murder in a community garden. It’s a debut novel and looks like a standalone at this point, but definitely has series potential. I'll certainly look forward to more by the author!

I originally had this on my kindle, but I was able to also get the audiobook version and then I tore through it! Loved the story, the characters and really hope there will be more books in this series.

The narrator was Patricia Santomasso and she was enjoyable to listen to, I really liked that the characters weren't all 20 somethings.

I would like to thank Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to read/listen to this story.

I recommend this story to all that love a good cozy mystery.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. But I must say I was drawn into the story from the very first page! I love an old house, an interesting main character (Maggie), and an intriguing mystery. Definitely worth reading! I hope it’s the start of a new series.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read this book. I wasn't sure where this was going to go based on the cover. There was not only a major mystery as to who was in the garden and what happened, but there are a couple of other mysteries as the story unfolds. I didn't want to put it down, I just had to keep reading until it was done. I hope this is the start to a series, I would love to see what happens to Maggie and all the awesome characters we met.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher.

Maggie Walker has inherited her grandmother’s house in a small town in the Berkshires. She’s long been a gardener, so when she is asked to help Violet with the new community garden, Maggie jumps in with both feet. But the morning of the grand opening, Violet is nowhere to be found. Then, a member of the community finds a boot in his plot in the community garden. A boot attached to a dead body. With the police thinking Violet might have something to do with it, Maggie’s set out to find her friend and prove she is innocent. But can she do it?

Since this book won a contest to be published, it caught my attention. Sadly, I don’t think it was quite ready for publication. The writing seemed a little vague at times, filling in details later, after we’d already made our impressions of things. The plot bogged down in the middle as Maggie spun her wheels before leading us to a good climax. The main characters were great, but the suspects were a little flat. The setting was charming, and even this non- gardener loved hearing about the plants. I wish I had liked this book better, but I probably won’t be moving on with the series.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries with a strong sense of community and a touch of horticulture This is a book to,read

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The Gardener's Plot is a nice cozy mystery written by Deborah J. Benoit. The gardening theme was different from what I usually read, and I found it quite enjoyable. The main character, Maggie Walker, investigates in an interesting way. The storyline is solid and intelligent. The setting is also a key factor which makes The Gardener's Plot so interesting. It is a perfect book for readers who enjoy both cozy mystery and books that have gardening for a main theme.

When Maggie Walker finds a body in the community garden, her small town is shocked and everyone has a theory about what happened. The director of the garden, and Maggie's friend, is missing and all eyes are on Maggie. With the clock ticking and her friend still missing, Maggie an her childhood best friend, Sally, set out to figure out exactly what's going on. With small town charm and a cast of even more charming Characters, The Gardener's Plot is the perfect suspenseful yet cozy mystery.

I think I might just not love the cozy mystery genre, it’s me not the book. However I loved the authors writing style!

Maggie Walker is starting her life over. After the death of her husband, almost ex-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 here.

Things take a nasty turn when Maggie finds a dead body buried in one of the garden plots. When Violet still doesn’t return, the police turn their eyes on Maggie. They wonder if she could be behind these horrible events. Meanwhile, Maggie’s concern is for Violet. She hopes nothing has happened to her and that she shows up soon.

This is the first book in a brand-new cozy mystery series. The characters are well written with Maggie and her best friend Sally being my favorites. The supporting characters are good, but I’d like to get to know them a little better.

The plot moved along at a steady pace. There were many suspects, and the storyline kept you guessing. I had my suspicions but ultimately, I guessed wrong. I’m looking forward to another entry into this series and another visit to the Berkshires.





FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Gardeners Plot by Deborah J Benoit, After the death of Maggie Walker’s grandma, she moves into her home back in Marlowe, where she has plenty of great memories. She makes fast friends with her neighbors, Sally Kendall, and violet Bloom, and becomes the assistant to Maggie who is the president of the new Gardening club. On the first night of it’s opening Violet text and says she’s going to be a little late so Maggie runs down to open the gardening center, but everything is brought to a screaming halt when a body is found buried in one of the gardening plots. because of violets passed with the deceased they think she’s the guilty party but soon when she doesn’t show up and stays missing Maggie, to detective Quinn‘s dismay, takes it up on herself to find out what happened to her friend. When the truth comes out, it will be the last person anyone would’ve thought capable. I really liked Maggie‘s friendship with Sally and Violet and was so sad that she wasn’t going to be in the book the whole time I mean Violet Sally was. I also liked the cantankerous relationship between detective Quinn and Maggie. This book had a cozy mystery field to it and so I was also surprised to learn this is a standalone novel because it totally could be a mystery series so if you like mysteries, then you will definitely enjoy this book. I certainly did they head likable and not so likable characters, intelligent writing it certainly is a great way to pass the afternoon. #NetGalley,#SaintMartin’sPress,#DeborahJBenoit, #TheGardenersPlot,.

The Gardener's Plot is a cozy mystery by Deborah J. Benoit. This has a community garden that ends up with more than plants found in it. The main character is likeable along with her close friend, some others not so much. Of course, Maggie decides to investigate what has happened to her missing co-worker putting herself and others in danger. While the detective in charge later apologizes for warning her off sternly, I didn’t think he needed to do that. She knew all about gardening, not murder. This turned out to be a twisty one at that with a killer who found it far to easy to kill once started.

An interesting tale especially enjoyed the compost lecture, so this author does know her gardening. It will be interesting to see if the detective returns in the next book as well as the childhood nemesis.

I enjoyed this small town murder mystery very much! Master gardener Maggie and best friend Sally are engaging characters and very supportive of each other. When a despicable man is murdered and buried in the new community garden, well, let the police deal with it. But when friend Violet who was in charge of the garden's organization vanishes, that's different. Maggie and Sally jump in, much to the disapproval of the police.

The Gardener’s Plot sounded like a cozy debut mystery that was going to be fun to read.
Maggie Walker had a life that was bumpy and needed to be settled down to be a normal life. Maggie moved back to her grandmother’s house with hopes that this was where she should be living. She enjoys gardening and when she can help run a community gardening spot, she jumped at the chance.
Everything seemed to be ready to go until a dead body was found. I want a mystery that is not easy to figure out who was guilty. This was easy to figure out.
Thank you NetGalley, Deborah J. Benoit and St. Martin's Press for the copy of The Gardener’s Plot. This is my personal review.

Maggie Walker is back in the small Berkshires town, where she spent summers with her aunt. After her aunt's passing, Maggie is now the proud owner of the home she loved as a kid. When Violet Bloom sets out to create a community garden, Maggie jumps at the chance to co-chair the effort and share her love for gardening. All goes to plan until Violet doesn't show up for opening day and Maggie find's a dead man in one of the plots. As the police start investigating, Maggie is desperate to locate her friend and to figure out who in their small town might be a killer.

This is you're quintessential small town cozy mystery. Filled with plenty of old grudges, gossip, friendships and rivals; Benoit does a fantastic job of capture the small-town atmosphere. With writing that flows and plenty realistic gardening advice, this book is a comfort read for sure. The gardening aspects and Benoit obvious depth of knowledge in this area, really added a unique characteristic to this cozy but never overshadows the mystery plot within the story.

Maggie is a decently interesting narrator but was by and large your typical cozy sleuth. For me the characters all blended together, and I never felt they had 'distinct' voices. There were also plenty of aspects where a red herring was being pushed at us a little too hard, which detracted from the story for me. Then again, I might just read too many mysteries to truly be surprised by plots nowadays.

For anyone who wishes they had a Green Thumber, The Gardener's Plot is a fun small-town mystery that is perfect for when you're looking for something light and airy. While the plot wasn't terrible complex, there is still enough small-town gossip to keep you guessing and hoping for a sequel.


The Gardener's Plot is out now. Thank you to Minotaur Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my:
Instagram
@speakingof.books.
Tiktok @speakingof.books
Website:
SPEAKINGOF.ORG

A cute cozy with a murder of a different thread. Community gardening plots and community beautification are all pretty normal, but not a garden plot with a foot sticking out of it.

This is what I call a cozy with all of the normal “elements”. It has a female sleuth who has suffered a trauma, moves back to a small town, and meets a town cop. The cop happens to be a little of a bully though.

While this was enjoyable reading, it seemed slow at times. I think there were two reasons for that. Maggie’s friend Violet was missing almost immediately in the story and that seemed to go on most of the book and yet at times, it seemed forgotten. Even more unusual, we didn’t know who was on the other end of the dead foot in the garden plot til quite far into the story.

This is a debut book for Deborah Benoit. I hope it will not be her last.

After Maggie Walker’s complicated marriage ended, she needed a new start. She sold her condo and moved back to the Berkshires, buying her grandmother’s house. She had grown up there as a kid, helping her grandmother with the gardens. Her grandmother had lived into her 90s, so the upkeep on the house and gardens had slid some in her later years, and Maggie wants to restore them.

In addition to that, she’s going to be helping Violet Bloom with the Marlowe Community Garden. Violet had found a location, set it up, and gotten Marlowe citizens to sign up for the plots. It was an opportunity for those without a yard to set up a small garden, and Maggie had volunteered her time to help with it. Since she trained as a master gardener, she is happy to put her skills to work in the Community Garden.

But the morning they’re supposed to get started, Violet is missing. She’d left a note at Maggie’s, saying she’d be a little late, so Maggie waited as long as the other gardeners would let her before opening the Community Garden for the first time. She feels bad. Since Violet had put in so much work, Maggie knew she’d want to be there for the first day. But Maggie couldn’t keep the others waiting, so she finally opened the gate and welcomed the gardeners in.

Roy Hansen had signed up for three plots, but as soon as he gets started, he’s calling out to Maggie. The plots were all supposed to have been carefully tilled the day before, but his plot has a work boot sticking up from it. Maggie tries to pull the boot up from the soil for him, and finds that there is a foot inside. Someone had used their brand-new community garden to try to hide a dead body.

The police are called and the Community Garden is put on hold for the investigation. Maggie tries to call Violet, but she can’t get ahold of her. Her childhood friend Sally Kendall shows up to help Maggie process the shock, and the women start to ask questions. And when they find out that the man buried in the Community Garden was Carl Henderson, Maggie is shocked. Carl is known around town for coming up with money-making schemes, and his latest was a large real estate development that would include luxury condos and abut the woods out back of Maggie’s house.

Ever since Maggie had bought her grandmother’s house, Carl had been trying to get her to sell it to him. Maggie had rolled her eyes and told him that she wasn’t interested in selling. But when he turned up dead, Maggie wondered if he had been trying to buy her neighbors’ houses as well for his Marlowe Estates. But as she starts asking questions, the police come after her and tell her to stay out of the investigation. But she just can’t. Maggie feels like she owes it to Violet, who is still missing, to find out what happened in the Community Garden.

As Maggie and Sally try to keep investigating on the sly, Maggie also has to deal with an old high school bully, an ex-boyfriend who is now the sheriff, and an annoying cousin who insists he’s entitled to more money from her grandmother’s estate. But all of that barely matters in light of Violet’s disappearance. Did she see something that she shouldn’t have? Is she hiding from danger? Or did something worse happen to her?

The Gardener’s Plot is a a debut novel from Deborah Benoit. It’s a slower moving mystery for readers looking for a calming small town mystery with some gardening tips. It has an old-fashioned feel to it, like it was written decades ago, but with modern twists.

I listened to the audio book for The Gardener’s Plot, narrated by Patricia Santomasso. I thought the narration was good, but it was a little slow in places. That fits with the old-fashioned feel to the mystery, but I did speed up the audio book for a while, to help with my impatience.

I liked this book, but not as much as I wanted to. I thought it had a strong premise, but it could use some tightening up in the storytelling. For example, it took a really long time to find out who it was that Maggie had found in the Community Garden. But keeping in mind that this is Benoit’s first book and a winner in the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel, The Gardener’s Plot could grow into a really solid series.

Egalleys for The Gardener’s Plot were provided by Minotaur Books, and a copy of the audio book was provided by Dreamscape Media, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.