Weeding Out Lies: A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Texas
Level Best Books (July 11, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages

Synopsis

Flower farmer Emma Justice’s life is firmly rooted in Lutz, Texas where she has recently begun her new business. One morning while delivering flowers, she stumbles upon a prominent citizen. Dead. When a friend is accused of murder, Emma launches her own investigation. She’s used to separating weeds from flowers. Emma will dig for clues, weed out red herrings and cultivate a plan to find the killer.

Amazon

Review

Since I live in Texas, I am always up for reading a book that is set here. I loved the small town of Lutz, the various residents of the town, the mystery of who killed Willow, and a puppy named Cowboy.

This is a new series, so we are meeting a new cast of characters. Emma is a flower farmer. I find that fascinating since I do not have a green thumb. However, she is able to grow beautiful flowers for the town, and you can never have too many beautiful blooms. There are a few new faces in the town, including Jake and his sister Celia. They are friends of Brett, who runs the coffee shop. Jake is former military, and it seems like he might be dealing with a case of PTSD. It may be mild, but I like that the author addresses it in the book.

I will admit that I wasn’t wild about Emma in the beginning. It felt forced, and she was jumping into trying to solve the murder before being asked to by her friend that was a suspect. Emma eventually grew on me, but she did make a few choices that were perhaps not so smart. But at the same time, when under pressure near the end when being confronted by the killer, she was ingenious in how she got out of the situation.

I did suss out the killer before the reveal, not by any hint, but just a gut feeling about a certain character. I think by the time I narrowed down all of the possibilities, this was the only one that seemed logical.

This series has a lot of potential, and I look forward to reading the next book to see what Emma is up to next. We give this book 4 paws up.

About the Author

Jackie Layton is the author of cozy mysteries with Spunky Southern Sleuths. Her stories are set in Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. She lives on the coast of South Carolina, where she enjoys walks on the beach and golf cart rides around the marsh. Reading, gardening, and traveling are some of her favorite hobbies. She always keeps a notebook handy to write down ideas for future stories. Be careful what you say around her because it might end up in a book.

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