Mum’s the Word by Kate Collins
As the first book of the Flower Shop Mysteries, Mum’s the Word is a character-driven cozy mystery story following the “sleuthing” of Abby Knight, a spunky town meddler and owner of the local flower shop Bloomers. As a law school dropout and the daughter of a police officer, Abby feels compelled to help bring people to justice as she tries to solve town mysteries as well as other people’s problems. When her yellow Corvette is banged up in a hit and run shortly after someone is murdered nearby, Abby decides the incidents are connected and she must find out who the real culprit is. Marco Salvare, a good-looking ex-cop, new owner of the local bar, and a private investigator on the side, decides to help Abby find who hit her car. However, Abby doesn’t stop here. Despite Marco and other friends telling her to stop, Abby keeps searching for clues. Receiving multiple wrongful parking tickets and nearly being hit off the road does not stop Abby from trying to discover the truth and bring everyone at fault to justice. I am sure that this book is funny, suspenseful, and engaging to the right audience, such as someone who enjoys cozy mysteries.
I really didn’t like this book. This was the first book I have read that is classified as a mystery. While I was reading, I was so bored I had to fight the urge to skim for plot. The book was so predictable! Busybody pushes her nose into EVERYONE’s business and tries to figure out everything or fix everyone’s problems. She acts like a strong character, but turns out to be weak and frightened when she is in danger. Abby pretended to be super smart and on top of it, but turned out to be ridiculously clueless when it came to the most obvious evidence. If I was involved with researching into a murder of a crack addict, I might be really suspicious if I purchased “fertilizer” from his old boss and it was a box of 3 small baggies of white, odorless powder that was not fertilizer. Hmmm. That’s a tough one.
Also, Abby very quickly figures out all the suspects for her mystery, and what a surprise, it turns out to be all of them! To lighten the mood, she has a semi-attraction to cute looking alpha male flat character that helps her. She ends up loving him when he saves her life, which is actually a known problem. People tend to fall for their saviors. Then the book ends in a happy party at the bar where everyone she knows comes to hug her, congratulate her, and give her a slight smack on the hand for meddling. The ending reminded me of the annoying movies that end with a random dance party. Overall, this book was not for me, and I think the mystery genre might not be my thing.
That was a hilarious and great review. I wouldn't give up on all mysteries though - remember Sturgeon's law, "90% of everything is crap." :)I have looked at those flower shop mysteries before - now I am glad I never picked one up!
ReplyDeleteSome cozy mysteries are really good but too many of them have plots that are predictable with bland heroines or heroes we are supposed to admire but the authors work so hard to be inoffensive to everyone that they are just bland and irritating, like this one sounds like. That's why it's so important to talk to prolific readers of the genre so we can find out what is good without trying to read everything.
O no don't give up! You might enjoy more literary mysteries (if I dare say) - maybe P. D. James or Agatha Christie and if you haven't started Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, well then, you are missing out on good times.
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