Deadhead and Buried

English Cottage Garden Mysteries, Book 1

By: H.Y. Hanna

Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

City girl Poppy desperately wants to pay off her debts, quit her dead-end job, find her father...oh, and keep a plant alive. But she knows that these are just hopeless dreams - until the day a letter arrives. Suddenly, Poppy is on a train heading deep into the English countryside to claim a mysterious inheritance. And the last thing she expects to receive is a cottage garden nursery - complete with romantic climbing roses, scented herbs, a bossy, talkative ginger cat...and a dead body.

Now, she must solve the mystery or risk losing her new home and the chance for a fresh start. But who would want to murder a gardener in a sleepy little village? Could a reclusive inventor have something to do with the killing? What about the brooding crime author next door? And why is her long-lost cousin so desperate for her to sell the cottage?

Poppy might not know her pansies from her petunias, but that doesn't stop her digging for clues. The only problem is - she could be digging her own grave, too....

©2019 H.Y. Hanna (P)2019 H.Y. Hanna

English cozy comfort

I was an instant fan of this new series, since I like the author, a traditional English countryside cozy setting, and Pearl Hewitt does a good narration. It is uplifting escapism for me; something I crave in these stressful times. There is a well-plotted murder, plausible red herrings, likable characters, and clues that aren't too obvious to spoil the mystery. I was charmed by the description of a tangled cottage garden awaiting an attentive hand. The series promises future enjoyment and perhaps new revelations. There are subplots that tempt me to continue the series: a possible romance, questions about hidden past relationships, mysterious pasts, plus Hanna's usual deft hand with pet companions and occasional humor. I'm eager for more.

Disappointing

Too many inconsistencies and dangling ends. Poppy is brilliant enough to memorize botanical plant names and remember how they look yet is too dim to see she’s in danger. She can’t afford to pay for coffee for her boss but moves to the cottage with no income, and instead of looking for a job she spends her time trying to solve a murder. And when she realizes that she only has one change of clothing, does she look for a washing machine or clothesline? No...she decides to go buy more clothing. Bertie was the best thing about this book...although there is still more to his connection with the author next door, but Hanna is clearly saving that for a future book.

Such a fun new series!

A spunky, clever amateur sleuth, a sexy brooding author and a quirky scientist make for a really entertaining story. Let us not forget about the clever ginger tomcat and adorable fiesty terrior!
Poppy Lancaster is a fantastic heroine and I really enjoyed hearing her go from harassed secatary to garden owner in the space of a day. You meet all sorts of characters as Poppy goes about trying to find out who murderer the handyman at her newly inherited cottage. I was surprised by who did the crime and absolutely loved the ending. I'm excited to listen as Pearl Hewitt brings the rest of this series to life.
Disclaimer I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.The opinions expressed are my own.

POPPY AND HER NEW LIFE!!!!

Hopefully there will be a long series of these Garden Mysteries!
Well written. Loved the whole storyline. Oren makes the the cottage mystery complete! The beauty of the flowers, cottage and the dream of a new life for Poppy. The cast of characters including the little dog gives me something to look forward to. Love the story . The narrator is a perfect match for Poppy! Thank you for a new refreshing series to look forward to!! Not many like this anymore!

simple

plot was simple listening and easy to figure out who the murderer was early on. could have had more characters with indepth personalities.

Endearing and Cozy Cottage Garden Beginning

Deadhead and Buried is an extremely entertaining first book in the English Cottage Garden Mystery series. It is simply a fun and lighthearted read, with several laugh-out-loud moments. What I like most about H.Y. Hanna’s stories are they are well written with likable characters and the mysteries are plausible with enough red herrings so as not to spoil the endings.

This story begins when down on her luck Poppy Lancaster inherits her estranged grandmother’s dilapidated cottage garden nursery. There is one catch to the inheritance, she needs to continue running the property as a nursery. However, Poppy doesn’t know the difference between a flower bulb from a rose bud. When she travels to the country to see the cottage for herself before selling it so she can pay her mounting debt, she falls in love with the cottage and over-grown flower garden. Unfortunately, she falls over a dead body in the hedgerow. The rest of the story is discovering who did it, along with all of the quirky residents in the charming country village.

The always impressive Pearl Hewitt narrated this audiobook, as she did with the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries audiobooks. Pearl did an outstanding job providing varying voices for all characters. Pearl narrates with enthusiasm and excitement, which is perfect for such an engaging new cozy mystery series!

You will want to burry yourself in this book until the end

A really nice start to a new series.
I really enjoy H.Y.Hannah's Oxford tea room mysteries and the Bewitched by chocolate series so thought I would give her new series a go to. Some how it seemed more grown up but was still a lot of fun. The characters were great and I especially liked the inventor and think H.Y will be having a lot of fun with this character and his whacky inventions.
The mystery was set in a garden and is very usual by being based in the world of flowers. The flowers do play a part in the mystery but you are not bombarded with information that you get bogged down so need to be a keen gardener to enjoy the book just a lover of mysteries. It had a lot of suspects and the mystery was a fun cozy that flowed along nicely until the end. As well as the fun human characters you also had the four legged kind too and at times they were quite amusing.
Poppy has inherited a country garden cottage just when she needs it most. Thinking things have finally gone right for her she moves in, now she just needs to study on how to keep a plant alive. Then she stumbles over the head garden buried in her back garden. Worried that being the new girl in the village the murder will get blamed on her Poppy starts to dig into the case. But a quiet life in a small country town is anything but simple it could also be deadly.
Liked the narrator and she does a good job of bringing the characters to life.

worth the read

loved it. relatable characters. entertaining and I enjoyed it too the very end. you won't be sorry.

Fun Mystery

I really enjoy HY Hanna’s charming characters and beautiful descriptions of the English country side. I did guess who murder was but it didn’t lessen my pleasure in reading it.

Enjoyable garden mystery

I'm enjoying reading about the plants etc in this book. And the characters are so entertaining! I'm loving Bertie. He's so sweet and funny.

A lovely new series

A brand new series from H.Y. Hanna.
It has the usual abundance of humour, pets and quirky characters that has become synonymous with the author.
The character development was very good. I particularly liked Bertie who is the source of most of the humour in the story. Nick Forrest, author and former detective, also made an interesting character and a possible romantic interest for Poppy in the future. The cottage and its garden sounded really beautiful in an old fashioned sort of way. I enjoyed watching Poppy come to appreciate it.
The mystery itself was quite good. I enjoyed following Poppy as she tried to figure out what had happened but it was quite obvious who the killer was. Despite this I liked the story. It was lots of fun and entertaining and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reading audio copy.

Aarrgghh

I only managed to get just over an hour in & realised I was spending more time shouting at the soppy Poppy than I cared to spend. Are there really people as dim & wet as her,, if so please don’t let them breed. I can’t give a review of the whole book as I would rather eat a bucket full of dirt than listen to anymore of this drivel. With a lead character who appears to have the IQ of a flip flop and to be about much use as a single one I feel sorry for the narrator, or I would if she wasn’t trying to sound like a breathy femme fatale when characterising a complete drip.
As you’ve probably gathered by now I’m not best pleased with this book, about the only thing that is halfway decent is the picture on the cover!
If you are considering buying this book please do so, but gift it to someone you really don’t like. If you have an IQ of more than 6 this book is not for you, go & listen to your children’s Noddy books, they have more intelligent & believable characters.
I’m off to have a large gin to help get over the trauma of listening to this twaddle.

Sweet but silly/daft

The book was easy to listen to and I liked the garden references a lot but the story (not unexpectedly) must be taken with a pinch of salt. Poppy is sweet but daft so it was hard to get into the story on a believability basis. It was also obvious who the murderer was right from the beginning. I wasn’t sure I’d get on well with the voice of the reader but actually it was fine.

Twit alert!

I can’t make up my mind about this book. The main character seems to be some sort of wimpy twit who couldn’t stand up for herself in a wind storm which for me, detracted from the actual story. Does this reflect badly on the author (whose other books I’ve loved), or is it the fault of the narrator who made Poppy sound like a 10 year old afraid of her own shadow? I’m going to reserve judgement until book 2.

Worth persevering

I've seen comments about the wimpiness of the main character, and at the start of the story I did find it rather annoying. Possibly the way it is read accents that. But as the story continued that lessened and I really got into the story. Will definitely try the next in the series.

Interesting introduction to the series.

The story, a little slow to start or to develop an attachment to the heroine, Poppy, meanders through a series of red herrings and eccentric characters.

The audiobook eventually gathers pace to a full paced walk, reflecting my experience of village life, we never do anything at speed, even Murder! The characters, although slightly larger than life keenly reflect the author’s and my experience of academia.

The actor’s performance added to the whole story and created a rich picture of Poppy and her life in the flower nursery. I was very impressed with the actors rich and full bodied performance and will be one reason to try another book next month to enjoy alongside ‘The Cherringham Mysteries’. Autumn will be a pleasure; listening to this in front of a big log fire.

Everyone did it!

Good grief, I was surprised that she didn't accuse herself of murder when she looked in the mirror! Everyone could have done it, and probably did! I am wondering why I bothered!

Too many deep breaths, too much eye rolling.

First in a series. So far it lacks the warmth and comfort of the Oxford Tea Room mysteries. I was looking forward to a further collaboration of Hannah and Hewitt but somehow this just felt flat. The story was ok. The narration was ok. Oren was ok, but no where near as adorable as Muesli. The professor was ok but the old biddies were better. I will try book two and hope things improve. The ingredients are all there it just needs to blossom.

Deadhead and. Buried

I thoroughly enjoyed this book The story and narration was surpurb I would strongly recommend this book

Mnow.

A mieowie good story, that leads you in, & makes you want to know more about the characters! IE why is the eccentric Scientist so enthralled by his near neighbour the Author? Etc.