Review: Silent Bud Deadly by H.Y. Hanna

Posted April 2, 2019 by Lola in Mystery, Review / 4 Comments

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Silent Bud DeadlySilent Bud Deadly (The English Cottage Garden Mysteries #2)
by H.Y. Hanna

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
A new British cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author H.Y. Hanna!

Poppy never imagined she’d move to the English countryside and fall in love with a smug, demanding, ginger-haired male. Of course, that was before she discovered that she’d inherited a cottage garden nursery, and before she met a certain talkative orange cat named Oren. Now she’s embracing a new life filled with rambling roses, scented herbs, warm summer days… and weeds (lots of weeds), as she attempts to restore the neglected cottage garden to its former glory. When she lands her first gardening job at a beautiful country house, Poppy is delighted to earn some much-needed money. But she barely sets foot in the flowerbed before the meddling neighbour drops dead in front of her–murdered by a lethal poison. Now Poppy finds herself busy weeding out suspects, helped by whacky old inventor Bertie and his feisty terrier Einstein, plus a whole host of nosy villagers… not to mention Nick Forrest, the maverick crime author. But with her clients’ flowerbed mysteriously dying and red herrings at every turn, Poppy soon discovers that neither gardening nor sleuthing are as simple as she thinks…

This book follows British English spelling and usage.Clean read: no graphic violence, sex, or strong language.
Genre: cat cozy mystery series / gardening cozy mystery / women amateur sleuth / British detective mystery

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

After how good book 1 was I was excited to dive right into book 2 soon after I received it. And I am happy to say book 2 is just as good. Silent Bud Deadly follows Poppy as she’s working hard to restore her grandmother’s garden nursery, but when she gets a job gardening she stumbles upon another murder.

The mystery in this was one was great. I did manage to predict who the murderer was, but not because it was too obvious, it just suddenly clicked for me when they did something. And there was enough I hadn’t figured out yet and I enjoyed seeing Poppy put the pieces together. There is a great twist, which I found quite unique as it’s not something I’ve seen so far in cozy mysteries as far as I can remember. I also liked how we slowly figure out more about the murdered women and who might’ve had motive to kill her. It also was interesting how at first there didn’t seem as many suspects, until Poppy discovers more and then more suspects pop-up.

Besides the mystery there’s Poppy who’s building a life for herself here in this new town she moved to. I loved seeing how she was doing and also her struggles with gardening. It made sense she made some mistakes, although I wasn’t happy when she lied to someone. I did liked when she admitted she made mistakes as she seemed open minded enough to realize when she was wrong and correct that. I like Poppy as a character and it was great to see how she was going with her garden.

There are also some interesting surprises among the side characters. There are some new characters like Amber, Christine and John we meet who have to do with Poppy’s gardening job. We hear more about Nell and there’s a fun development with her. I liked seeing how the detective Suzanne and Poppy interact. And Nick still continues to be a promising love interest for Poppy, they annoy each other sometimes, but it’s clear they do care about each other. But it really is only a hint so far of possible romance, but it will be great to see how that develops. I also liked seeing what Bertie is up to in this book and how one of his inventions plays a role in the investigating part. And the pets Owen and the terrier (forgot his name) make multiple appearances as well. It’s a great cast of side characters.

To summarize: this was an awesome sequel. I had so much fun reading it and figuring out the mystery alongside with poppy. I managed to guess the murderer correctly, which was fun, but there were parts I only figured out when Poppy did. There is a great twist concerning the mystery which was really well done. I like seeing Poppy settling in here in her new house and town and how she’s working on her gardening skills. It felt realistic that she made mistakes and even tough I didn’t always agree with how she handled things, I do think her reasoning made sense and was in character. There is a great cast of side characters and also some great connections Poppy makes with them. All in all this is a great new series and I would recommend it to those who love cozies!

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Do you like gardening?

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4 responses to “Review: Silent Bud Deadly by H.Y. Hanna

  1. Always good news when a sequel lives up to the first book and adds some even better things to love like new characters and advancement on the plot. Neat how you spotted the one thing to put you onto the solution to the mystery. I’m with you about not minding the mistakes if they are consistent with the character and she learns from them for the next time.
    All sounds good!
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Silent Threat by Dana MartonMy Profile

    • It was a great sequel and I liked how that one thing put me on the right path for who the murderer was. I thought it made sense why she made those mistakes and it seems like she will learn from them, which is good. I really appreciated how she owns up to her mistakes at the end.

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