Body in the Orchard

by Phyllis Wachob

It wasn’t unusual to find a dead body in the orchards surrounding Bakersfield, California. So when Vermilion Blew reads in the local paper about yet one more corpse dug up by a backhoe, she dismisses the discovery. That is, until the revelation that the man had a ticket in his pocket for a movie that she had attended with her fiancé, thirty-seven years before. And that movie was the last time she had seen Frankie Monroe, the evening before her nuptials. Very has gone on with her life, or so she believes, until a slippery slope of events pushes her into a painful and mostly repressed past. A return to the emotional roller-coaster of the days and weeks that followed the spoiled wedding causes Very to face a horde of questions that she had longed to bury. Why was Frankie so secretive about his origins? Does the clue of the movie ticket solve anything or open a swarm of meddlesome queries? When new evidence emerges about the body in the orchard, Very plunges into the murky world of identifying and tracing missing persons, and she discovers a new profession, skip-tracing private investigator.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 20, 2020

About the author

Phyllis Wachob has been a fan of mysteries since her childhood and an English teacher for over 30 years. While teaching and living in many countries around the world, including Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Egypt and Turkey, she has visited over 75 countries. Inspired by her own and others' adventures as English teachers, she has chronicled her travels in a series of four mysteries, called the Teachers Abroad Mysteries, set in exotic places and interesting times. She still teaches English in Bakersfield, California, where she now resides. Her latest series, Kern Kapers Mysteries, is set in her hometown.

Reviews

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Soooooo boring and needlessly dramatic. Not my kind of writing. I was excited because I live in Kern County, so I thought it would be cool, but now I’m disappointed that I didn’t like it. Time for a short, quick, and action-packed read!

[Chris Meichtry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so incredibly dull. Painfully so. In addition to having characters constantly repeat themselves and each other (and also contradicting themselves in the process), the author went into painstaking detail about the most mundane things that weren't the least bit relevant to the story or any character development. Is it really necessary for us to know the shopping habits of some random secondary character? Is it so important to describe the history of a dead old woman's shoes? You could easily cut out half of the content in this book and you wouldn't even know that something was missing. And if I read the phrase "she easily found a parking spot" one more time, I might do something drastic.

While it's neat that the book takes place in Bakersfield—and that's really the only reason I read it to begin with—I don't need the setting constantly thrown in my face. We get it, you're familiar with the city; we don't need step-by-step directions to every real-life locale. Explaining that the character drove north on Chester Ave and took a left on Whatever St means absolutely nothing to people not familiar with the area. For those of us who are familiar with it, it doesn't add anything. It's almost like some kind of weird humblebrag, like we should be impressed that she actually lives in the place that she's writing about.

On top of that, there is the painfully stiff dialog that doesn't sound even remotely natural. But hey, the book at least has an interesting premise, enough so to make me curious enough to actually finish the book. It took me a couple of weeks to slog through this but I pressed on because I wanted to find out what really happened. Unfortunately, there was no pay-off. By the end of the story, the main question has been left unanswered. It just...ends. It is implied that this will be just the beginning of a series but I'm not interested in reading any further; I'll just wait for spoilers instead.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mans body was found in the orchard. Very (her nickname) thought it was her ex who had taken off and never returned . She never knew what happened to him. She later found out it wasnt him but some other man. So she went to this mans wifes home in search of information on her Frankie, as both men knew each other. She goes to a investigator, but he gives her a book how to find people and other interesting things on doing a investigation. So she did it all herself. She found out her Frankie , a man named Q-ball, one called The Killer, and Curly once were in a band when they were young. So she searched for anyone by that name till she came to finding he truth.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mystery took off in a clip and kept me turning pages until the end. I love a "whodunit" novel. Being a Bakersfieldian, I related to the accurate descriptions of iconic places of yesteryear in downtown Bakersfield, Trout's Bar, the Bluffs, the Kern River, and even the road up to Tehachapi. I could also relate to the main character, who at that stage in her life, is trying to find answers to the past while dealing with her own aging and downsizing of stuff. Twists and turns lead to more unanswered questions and set the stage for future stories in this series. Bravo Phyllis!

[Melanie K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously, the author clearly dislikes her hometown and wants everyone to have the same view of the town. It’s also quite humorous that one responsible for educating the youth of the area feels the education they receive is substandard. The author comes off as elitist.
I found the plot of the story interesting and it could have been a compelling story. It just fell flat. I never felt the main character was fully developed. Even the character didn’t understand why she was doing what she was doing.

[Lynn Runyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where is Frank?

Absolutely MUST read for anyone familiar with Kern County, Californian. What a creative and twisting plot - I loved this mystery! As a third generation Bakersfieldian it was fantastic to be able to so clearly visualize the settings from the bluffs, widening 24th and all the way east to Tehachapi! Awesome

[Mick Randall]

A page turning read

A really interesting mystery story told well with short, enticing chapters which lead you through the tangled story of a retired librarian in search of the truth about an incident which happened in her past.

[Julie Bonderov · Rating 5 out of 5]

The suspense is building…

Phyllis Wachob has filled her story with local landmarks and characters. Body in the Orchard resolves multiple questions in satisfactory manner while leaving the reader wanting more!

[January Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super Awesome! I loved this nice cozy read that kept me in suspense. Brilliant characters!

[literaryleftie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dull. Poorly written. So much unnecessary details.

[Carolyn Troxel]

This author should not write about a town she dislikes so much. I live in Kern County and was very disappointed in how every mention of Bakersfield was negative.

[Phyllis Wachob]

A book about Bakersfield, written by someone who knows her stuff.