This is a review of the book A Hoe Lot of Trouble, a selection of The Garden Bloggers Book Club.
I went to a lot of trouble to read this book. As you may already know, I participate in an online Paperback Book Swap and depend on it to obtain most of my light reading. A couple months back I posted a request for this book so that I could review it. The book was sent and I waited and waited. Finally it was officially declared lost in the mail and I went back on the list for another copy. It got here Tuesday. It’s lucky I am a fast reader because I wanted to be able to post a review by the end of the month.
After the first chapter I almost tossed it away. But I had waited so long and it was clearly a pretty light novel which I knew I could plow through in a few hours. So I persevered.
The reason I almost threw it away is that frankly it’s not very good. Or at least it’s not to my taste. The writing style was really annoying and I never developed any sympathy for the characters.
Many of these “cozies,” which is what they are calling light mysteries these days, remind me of TV serials. This one could be a sitcom. Or to be more generous maybe I could compare it to a screwball comedy from the early 60’s. I could kind of imagine Doris Day as the lead, or even Judy Holiday.
The plot is merely a thin device for leading the main character into a series of weak comedy sketches, like one that involves a shrieking housewife jumping onto a chair in terror of her son’s pet boa constrictor, or the heroine’s sidekick blowing the surveillance gig by running out of the woods with her panties around her ankles after squatting in the poison ivy to relieve herself.
The main character supposedly worked as a landscaper and this was the reason it was chosen for the book club. But like so many landscapers I have known in person, this one seemed to have little or no actual interest in plants. The only plant that plays any role in the book is the aforementioned poison ivy.
If you are looking for a good read in which gardening does play a role, even if a small one, I suggest instead the book I reviewed earlier in the month. I got it by mistake because it was labeled as a mystery involving a gardener. Actually it’s not a mystery, but you won’t be disappointed with it.
Comments (9)
I don’t care for books like that either. And the older I get, the less patience I have with them!
Yep, I agree, I didn’t care for the book either. I couldn’t finish it! I guess “that’ll learn me” to maybe read just a little bit of the book before I choose it. But, in my defense, it had some good reviews on Amazon!
Thanks for participating in the book club.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
After reading a few reviews I’m still on the fence as to read this one, Bill. I do like cozies… but not dumbed-down cozies.
I also like Judy Holiday, but am not too sure that one reference to poison ivy makes it a garden mystery.
Annie
I had a recent experience much like this. I read a mystery novel called The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. The mystery itself was hardly the point of the story. It was more a case of the fish-out-of-water protagonist colliding with all sorts of personalities in the village where he has come to be librarian. None of the characters were appealing, and the interactions grew annoying.
But I read it because it was a mystery without a murder. I’m on a quest to find cozy mystery novels that don’t
involve murder. Any suggestions?
Pablo, I came across one once, but I can’t think of the name just now.
I enjoyed reading your review, although I enjoyed this book. I will certainly be looking up the book you recmmend. sara from farmingfriends
I enjoyed your review and I agree with it. What gets me are the five-star reviews on Amazon. Are these people friends of the author or don’t know a good book when they read one?
I didn’t like it either, and I had just the same reaction about the characters. If I knew those people in real life, I’d avoid them.
The “cozies” I like best are from England and several decades ago – Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, and Margery Allingham’s Campion. I guess it’s not a coincidence that many of these were dramatized on PBS’s Mystery!