BOOK THREE OF THE INTRIGUING “THYME WILL TELL” MYSTERY SERIES Can Regan Culver prune away a thorny tangle of suspicion and danger that’s strangling an heirloom rose society?
After wildlife rehabilitator Damia Day costs senatorial hopeful Bram Falco the election, her animal patients are slaughtered and her prized rose bushes poisoned–presumably in retaliation. Since both Day and Falco are members of the heirloom rose society founded by Regan Culver’s mother, Regan is asked to intervene. But when someone replaces Falco’s lighter fluid with gasoline at a society cookout, the resulting explosion disfigures him for life and a deadly, modern-day War of the Roses ignites.
To quench it, Regan must discover the truth about another fiery accident that dates back to the seventies and has left one charred body unidentified for twenty-five years. But before the mystery is solved, a murderer will strike again. And the blood-stained white rose clasped in the victim’s hand warns Regan that even an interfering innocent can be in danger when she knows too much…
Stallsmith knows how to take a simple plot, complicate it, and strip it back down to its basic simplicity again. It's been at least a decade since I read this book and I'd forgotten several important things.
One of Stallsmith's greatest strengths is how unapologetically flawed she leaves her characters. They have a growth arc, sure... but they don't go from bad to perfect. They transition from flawed here, to improved but seeing new flaws there... It's more like her characters take a spiritual journey that only opens them to further spiritual needs they must address.
And the mysteries are always as simple and complicated as you need to keep you guessing.
A crazy mix of a bizarre love-hate romance, environmentalism, illegal immigration and marriage of convenience, racism/prejudice, adoption, etc., is deftly untangled by the heroine, all in the social setting of the members of a Rose Society (garden club).
I liked this one more than the previous one. I still feel a bit off balance from the twists. I'm a little sad I don't have any more books to read by this author.
Learned a lot about roses. Mystery was compelling. I had some trouble keeping track of the characters, although Audrey always added a tidbit that should have helped remind me of who they were. If this is the last of the series, I was disappointed by the lack of resolution with the main character and the relationship she began in the first book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.