Guest Review: Murder Among the Roses by Liz Fielding

MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S THE BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.

In the peaceful Cotswolds village of Maybridge, you wouldn’t expect to find a dead body in the rose garden. And certainly not two.

Abby is horrified to discover the bones of a baby buried under a rose bush. It’s in the garden of her soon-to-be ex-husband Howard’s family home.

She immediately calls the police. But she can’t get hold of Howard. He’s off on a jolly with the woman he’s got pregnant.

And then, just two days later, Abby finds Howard himself.

Lying dead in the very same rose garden.

Throat slashed with her own garden spade.

Now Abby is the prime suspect . . .

Review: This is the first book from this author that I have read. It’s actually the first in a trilogy, but is a standalone story.

The central character in this book is Abby Finch, a landscape gardener living in the small Cotswolds village of Maybridge with her three children. She is going through a contentious divorce from cheating husband Howard who is set to marry his pregnant girlfriend. While working in the overgrown garden of her husband’s future home, Abby makes the grizzly discovery of what turns out to be a baby’s remains, apparently buried there many years ago. Still recovering from the shock of that discovery, Abby is further dismayed to find Howard dead in the exact same spot, having been killed with her spade. Since he had argued with several people just before his death, the police are not short of suspects in the crime. Everyone has motive, but who will turn out to be the murderer? And who was the mother of the dead baby?

I very much enjoyed this murder mystery, which kept me guessing until the very end with all its twists and turns. There were many interesting characters in the story in addition to Abby. She herself was a typical busy working mother who many would identify with, juggling the everyday demands of children with running her own business. I did like her children, who were quite sensible and sensitive to their mother’s needs. Howard, however, was definitely not a likeable person, riding roughshod over everybody. As you would expect with such a sociable person, Abby had no lack of friends in the community, who rallied round in her time of need. There was also the promise of romance in the shape of an old flame who turned up just at the right moment. I will be looking out for the next book in the series, hoping to catch up with Abby and family again.

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