This charming, sweet novel is set in the world of the competitive gardening clubs in the UK. The main character, Gill Swanley, a widowed single mom, is juggling a burgeoning teen, a horrible job and a difficult and aging mother. Her job seems especially soul crushing, as she’s in charge of a group of insurance call centers, ordered to cull her workforce by uncovering the slackers.
Riches manages to find humor in this situation, especially in the texts from Gill’s teenaged son (the one where he can’t find the lasagna she left for him to heat up for dinner is a classic). For respite, she decides to try joining a garden group called the Bromley Botanists. Her first get-together sounds a bit like an AA meeting with everyone sharing their feelings, but the main thrust of the discussion becomes the “Golden Trowel,” a gardening award which the Botanists have never won, something they are determined to change in the coming year. Gill is just beginning to form alliances and friendships with members of the group when she and Marjorie, the Queen Mum of the group, discover a dead body in the community greenhouse and all heck breaks loose.
The dead woman turns out to have left a golf course she owns as the prize for the Golden Trowel, which ups the stakes immediately. While this book is a mystery, with a murder at the nexus of the action, it’s also an identity journey for Gill as she comes to terms with being a widow with a cranky mom, demanding boss, and an exasperating teenage son (who is really quite a nice kid).
But it’s the gardening parts that make this book really stand out. There’s pretty specific stuff about composting, dealing with bugs, starting seeds, planning a garden, etc, which make it the perfect winter’s read if you’re itching to get your hands back in the warm dirt of your garden. Unless you are already an advanced expert you’ll find yourself picking up gardening tips at the same time as Gill does. There’s even a golden Cinderella moment when one of the club members takes over her sad looking back garden and transforms her compost pile into something magical.
The relationships between members of the group, especially between Gill and a fellow single parent, the nerdy John, are what makes the book sing, as does the central character herself. The author keeps the detecting very hands off, with the amateurs standing back to let the police do their work. While a more realistic approach to actual murder investigation, for lovers of the amateur sleuth it may prove a slight disappointment. But what’s important is Gill’s journey – and the gardening! — Robin Agnew