Red Book of Primrose House (Potting Shed Mysteries, #2)

by Marty Wingate

[Mystereity Reviews]

Pru begins her new job at the Primrose House and is set with the gargantuan task of returning the gardens of a manor house back to the original landscaped designed by Humphrey Repton. As she begins work, she is beset by vandalism, and then the murder of one of her staff, the elderly Ned. Of course, Pru dives in to solve the murder, while trying to make her long-lost brother like her and mooning over her fellow, Christopher (because calling him her boyfriend is hysterically funny or something.)

This is the second book of the Pottery Shed series and while it was pretty much just as good as the first, there were a few tiny things that niggled at me. For one, it annoys me that Pru, while saying she's "not a police officer" and will "stay out of it" seems to go out of her way to keep information from everyone. What little information she does divulge, it's it's usually not to the right people. Oh, you have knowledge of someone's alibi? Just tell your boyfriend and not the cops who are investigating. Nah, it's cool. They don't need all the info.

The other niggling thing is all the mooning. Every other page was a mopey sigh how much Christopher and Pru were missing each other. Just a tiny bit too heavy on the romance, I think. I mean, it can be excused as a way to keep Christopher pertinent in the story but bleah....

The plot was really good, I enjoyed it. While the first book had a culprit who wasn't a part of the story, in this one it was more figuring out how they did it, rather than who did it. I also loved the letters from Pru's employer with more and more outlandish requests. It was just the kind of comedy relief that was needed to break up the book.

Overall, a great read and I'm really enjoying sinking into these stories.