Author: Marty Wingate
About the Book: USA Today bestselling author Marty Wingate’s Potting Shed series continues as expert gardener Pru Parke digs up a Nazi warplane—and a fresh murder.
Texas transplant Pru Parke has put down roots in England, but she never dreamed she’d live in a grand place such as Greenoak. When her former employers offer Pru and her new husband, former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, the use of their nineteenth-century estate while they’re away for a year, she jumps at the chance. Sweetening the deal is the prospect of further bonding with her long-lost brother, Simon, who happens to be Greenoak’s head gardener. But the majestic manor has at least one skeleton in its closet—or, rather, its garden.
Working on renovations to the extensive grounds, siblings Pru and Simon squabble about everything from boxwood to bay hedges. But when the removal of a half-dead tree turns up the wreckage of a World War II–era German fighter plane and a pile of bones, the arguments stop. That is, until a rival from Simon’s past pays a surprise visit and creates even more upheaval. It’s suddenly clear someone is unhappy their secrets have been unearthed. Still, Pru’s not about to sit back and let Simon take the fall for the dirty deed without a fight. (from Goodreads)
My thoughts: Being the 4th book in the series, I am afraid there was some backstory that I was missing that might have contributed to a better understanding of the relationships in this book. As far as the mystery goes, it read well as a stand alone. However, sometimes there were people or relationships mentioned that I had to go back and try to figure out who they were.
There is really more than one mystery going on here, beginning with the bones that were dug up when the German plane was unearthed. It isn't long before another body - this one more recent - is discovered and the list of suspects begins to grow. It seems like many people may have wanted this gentleman dead - or at the very least - to pay for some of his wrongs from the past. Pru's brother Simon is on this list, and Pru fears that the policeman in charge will find him guilty, due to his inexperience with murder investigations. For this reason, her husband is running his own investigation in secret. Of course Pru is going to be doing her own investigation as well!
I enjoyed meeting these characters and hope to go back and get caught up on how they all came to be a family. It was a quick read and very much a cozy mystery. All of the gardening references made me hungry for spring to get here so I can get outside and start playing in the dirt!
~I received a complimentary ecopy of this book from Random House Monthly Mystery Chatterbox in exchange for my unbiased review.~
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