We aren't mourning anything or anyone, really. We're talking about plants. Once in awhile we refer to the mystery of how and why the woman who was screaming in the trailer while it burned to the ground with her inside it was killed, but the murder is peripheral. The subject should scream with urgency, but it gets lost among the minutiae.I have never abandoned a book from this series before. I was just about out of light reading (both mentally and physically; I prefer a fictional pocket paperback for bedtime), and I found this for a buck at a local charity shop. Now I know why someone gave it away.The characterizations are descriptive enough, and I have read enough of the series, that I should have bonded with them by now, but they feel contrived and a little bit wooden. The one that has been best developed, in my own thinking, is the character of Sheila "Tough Cookie" Dawes. Ruby has always felt a little cartoonish to me, and though China voices how she feels about this, that, the other, I never feel it along with her. The writer's voice is either a chilly one, or else she's phoning it in.I have a general rule of thumb when it comes to crime thrillers and mysteries, even cozy mysteries: if the book has recipes in it, it isn't a focused plot line. Don't buy books that have recipes unless you're buying a cookbook. It was good advice, and I should have listened to my inner voice here. I found a second book by this writer at the same charity store, and it is from a second series that I've never read. I will try it; you never know. After all, I already gave them a buck for it; what more have I got to lose? But China Bayles and I are breaking up. It's so over. The latest in Albert's China Bayles series is part herbologist's handbook, part travel guide to shopping and dining in Pecan Springs (which doesn't actually exist), part discourse on all the members of China's growing family and, oh yes, a mystery is somehow squeezed in there as well. I have nothing against adding color and nonessential elements to a mystery (which cozies likes this are famous for) but this one stretches it a bit. The mystery itself is pretty standard fare.
What do You think about Mourning Gloria (2011)?
Very good story, a bit of horticulture mixed with mystery and just enough suspense. I enjoyed it.
—nickforu
