Cozy mystery review: Flowers and Foul Play (A Magic Garden Mystery #1) by Amanda Flower

Title: Flowers and Foul Play (A Magic Garden Mystery #1) 
Author: Amanda Flower
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Lenght: Novel
Reviewed by: Laurie 
Rating: 4

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 the Scottish Highlands, 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, national bestselling author Amanda Flower’s enchanting first Magic Garden mystery,

Flowers and Foul Play is a fascinating story that takes you on an adventure in a small village in Scotland.

Fiona and the whole cast in Scotland are very likable characters especially inspector Neil, which I hope to read more of incoming books, the settings are very detailed in the story and I loved the touch of magic and the fact that I was never able to guess the killer, but I did have a few issues with the story that I hope some will be explained in coming books.

The setting is in Scotland but yet every character in Scotland seemed to talk in American language, I felt like if there were more notes of the Scottish slang it would have given it a more Scotland feel, as it is now there wasn’t enough aye, eh, naw here and there to make me believe it was in Scotland.

I liked the idea of Fiona owning a flower shop, but I had an issue when she sees the garden, it was liked it never mattered to her, someone that has a passion for flowers would show emotion when flowers are dying or even coming to life.

I also felt like a few things were left untold. You never truly find why Fiona is tied to the stone and its magic and how it all works.

Even with the issues I had, the story kept me enthralled to the end and I cannot wait for book two. 

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