Flowers and Foul Play

A Magic Garden Mystery

By: Amanda Flower

Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton

Fiona Knox lost her fiancé and her flower shop - but when she flies to Scotland to inherit her godfather’s cottage and possibly magical walled garden, she may lose her life as well when she’s swept into a murder investigation.

Florist Fiona Knox’s life isn’t smelling so sweet these days. Her fiancé left her for their cake decorator. Then, her flower shop wilted after a chain florist opened next door. So when her godfather, Ian MacCallister, leaves her a cottage in Scotland, Fiona jumps on the next plane to Edinburgh. Ian, after all, is the one who taught her to love flowers.

But when Ian’s elderly caretaker Hamish MacGregor shows her to the cottage upon her arrival, she finds the once resplendent grounds of Duncreigan in a dreadful shambles - with a dead body in the garden. Minutes into her arrival, Fiona is already being questioned by the handsome Chief Inspector Neil Craig and getting her passport seized.

But it’s Craig’s fixation on Uncle Ian’s loyal caretaker, Hamish, as a prime suspect, that really makes her worried. As Fiona strolls the town, she quickly realizes there are a whole bouquet of suspects much more likely to have killed Alastair Croft, the dead lawyer who seems to have had more enemies than friends. Now it’s up to Fiona to clear Hamish’s name before it’s too late in Flowers and Foul Play, USA Today best-selling author Amanda Flower’s spellbinding first Magic Garden mystery.

©2018 Amanda Flower (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Very bad accent

I'm from the south and I have no accent. Some of the vocabulary I use is southern but the accent is severely overdone. Everything else was great as usual.

Good story

As the first in a series, the was a good start. The plot was well done, and the premise of the garden is intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes as the series continues. However, the narration was very difficult to get past. She does a good job with all the other voices but her interpretation of a Nashville accent for the main character is just terrible, especially with certain words. I got past most of it but every time she said "protest " I flinched and nearly stopped the book.

very good

Overall, I enjoyed this. it's a unique story and the setting is wonderful. There are lots of suspects and a few red herrings, so the mystery itself if pretty good.

I definitely plan to listen to the next in the series.

Interesting

This was a murder mystery with a magical garden. I'm not into stories that deal with magic but this is a mystery with a light touch of a magic garden and animals, which gave it an interesting twist. I don't know where the garden and animals will lead to but I hope future stories will concentrate on the mystery and not get carried away with the magic. I like the characters and the plot. It took a while for me to get used to the accent but once I did, I was able to understand the narrator and follow the story. The narrator did great with all the different accents (Southern, Scottish, and British) as well as both male and female voices. Curious to hear what the next book in this series will cover.

Enjoyable

I enjoyed the story. Good intro into new series. Narration was good, accents were on point.