Murder in the Garden by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Having read a previous book (#7) in the series I went into this one optimistically. The other book in the DI Greene series had a slow start which left me a little undecided about the series. As such, I was excited to have a chance to read another in the series. Murder in the Garden has a great start full of tension and potential. Plot points reach back into #8 and #7 but you won’t have had to read either to get caught up and move through #9. Many of the points I disliked about #7 (Murder in the Meadow) were softened, edited or absent and the strengths of Faith Martin’s writing shone through. I found myself unable to put the book down.

There are two stories going side by side in Murder in the Garden. There is the aforementioned garden murder and then there’s a plot that relates back to the 8th book in the series. Although details of that will be discussed early in #9 I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone. I enjoyed the way that the two plots travelled on parallel tracks until their inevitable resolution toward the end of the book. Having the two plots helped resolve the pacing issues I had noticed with book 7. The DI Greene series is definitely more about the investigators than the murders, which is clear after reading two books in the series, but I really enjoyed Martin’s development of her characters and am now very eager to read more of the series.

I also like that the books can stand alone. I just think that they are stronger taken as a series.

View all my reviews