{"id":983,"date":"2013-04-30T18:34:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T00:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=983"},"modified":"2013-04-30T18:34:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T00:34:33","slug":"alyse-carlson-the-azalea-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/alyse-carlson-the-azalea-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyse Carlson: The Azalea Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A smooth fit with Berkley\u2019s line of cozy \u201cthemed\u201d mysteries,\u00a0The Azalea Assault\u00a0features a PR pro from Roanoke, Va. who works with the local garden society. This book hits on a lot of fronts \u2014 there\u2019s gardening, there\u2019s a little cooking, and there are three pretty interesting women at the center of the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The main character, Camellia Harris, lives with her more free and easy BFF, Annie. While Camellia is more rule oriented and super organized, Annie is more of a free spirit in peasant skirts to Camellia\u2019s Talbot\u2019s slacks, getting things done by the skin of her teeth. They are a well matched pair and their living arrangement \u2014 same house, each with her own apartment \u2014 suits them perfectly.<\/p>\n

As the story opens, Cam is nervously awaiting the arrival of famed French photographer Jean-Jacques Georges, who has been talked into photographing a famous Roanoke garden for the well known magazine\u00a0Garden Delights\u00a0(which is surely a riff on\u00a0House and Garden.) The garden described sounds so breathtaking it seems hard to believe photographers wouldn\u2019t be falling all over themselves to photograph it, but the loving description of the plants and greenhouses supplies enough \u201cgarden porn\u201d for a gardening enthusiast to get him or her interested in the rest of the story.<\/p>\n

As Cam walks through the space with Jean-Jacques assistants, she begins to feel nervous \u2014 why is so much prep necessary? When she meets the great man, her worst fears are confirmed \u2014 he\u2019s a dismissive jerk who is putting the whole of Roanoke down before even laying eyes on the fabulous gardens of La Fontaine.<\/p>\n

La Fontaine is owned by Neil Patrick and his younger wife, a former Miss Virginia, Evangaline. Add in the rest of the Garden Society to fill out the cast, and the author easily supplies a varied and rich group of folks to draw her suspects from when Jean-Jacques is, of course, murdered.<\/p>\n

Why would Cam get involved in the crime? Well, her sister Petunia\u2019s man, Nick, is arrested, and she\u2019s sure of his innocence. She\u2019s on a tear, and she drags along Annie, who is pegged as the replacement photographer, and her reporter boyfriend Rob.<\/p>\n

The story turns out to have a satisfying number of twists, and while supposedly in America there is no class system, one of the things cozy mysteries are best at is deconstructing it. In this case, the author turns a very sensitive eye to girls who were born, as my mother would say, \u201cadvantaged,\u201d and are struggling with their various discomfort levels and even guilt stemming from their privilege. And of course a garden society offers a great cross section of the middle and upper classes.<\/p>\n

All in all, Carlson has given her fledgling series a great start, with strong characters, good story sense and sense of place, as well as a sly sense of humor that I hope will come even more to the forefront as the series progresses. The gardening is a great bonus, but as a reader, you\u2019ll stay tuned for the mystery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A smooth fit with Berkley\u2019s line of cozy \u201cthemed\u201d mysteries,\u00a0The Azalea Assault\u00a0features a PR pro from Roanoke, Va. who works with the local garden society. This book hits on a lot of fronts \u2014 there\u2019s gardening, there\u2019s a little cooking, and there are three pretty interesting women at the center of the story. The main … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-americancozy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}