Mrs B, is a landlady with a difference - she has a fondness for misfit tenants - in her rental cottages, we have Nicholas, Sophie, Hamilton, Lily-Ann, Ocean and her children, and new tenant Anthony. As soon as Anthony moves in, a body is discovered dead. The police arrest Anthony but Mrs B doesn't like this outcome, so decides to claim she killed the person. The tenants form a group ‘Marigold Cottages Murder Collective’ to get them both out of prison. It was well written and the characters were flawed but likeable and they got on well as a group. It was funny in places, full of twists and turns, which led to surprising conclusion.

The novel has a perfect set up, it lulls you into a false sense of security that it will play by the rules. A tight-knit community headed by an Octogenarian, upset by murder and stereotypical cop character. Only nothing is what it seems… well, maybe the cop in the novel.

We’re not dealing with straight cosy crime territory, although there are nods to the genre, neither is it a hard-nosed crime novel… it offers something different, modern, and utterly page turning.

You just know you’re reading a good book when the character voices grab you from the outset, and this novel continued throughout, managing a different cast of characters. All of them are interweaving perfectly to keep the reader on their toes as to the central crime plot.

I did have some guesses as to who the perpetrator could be and how the relationships between the characters would inevitably play out, but the ending had me shocked!

I also have to praise the book for tackling a myriad of different issues without allowing them to take over the main plot line. At times, the novel had almost a surreal quality, with scenes being presented in a play format.

To sum up, I found this book quirky, dysfunctional, and yet endearing.

A cosy crime story reminiscent of the Vera Wong stories. A host of characters to learn about with each chapter changing between their points of view, each written in first person.

Set in suburban America and does have a tendency to over describe Santa Barbara and the cityscape but does bring the location to life.

There were a jumble of odd characters each with their own idiosyncrasies, who at the start are the biggest bunch of self obsessed individuals, luckily they do improve as the story progresses.

I was put off by the weight of Lily-Ann; Vernon deciding at one glance.. "Nothing flashy or obvious about her, but she wasn’t some fat lady in the mobile home park with a temper. Plus, she’d still be gasping for breath after that much exercise." but equally Lily-Ann is admired and confident.

The characters are very emotive, sweet, irritating, self interested and unusual. I greatly disliked Vernon the detective, but that was very much the point.

If you like Vera Wong then you will enjoy meeting the Marigold Cottages Murder Collective.

I don’t often have such mixed feelings about books, but this one made me wonder about how I could review the novel the whole time I was reading it. It’s hard to mention everything while avoiding spoilers, but I’ll be vague. The premise isn’t, by the way. It gives too much away, and that can affect how much people enjoy a book. I’m someone who reads the premise but doesn’t pay too much attention, hoping I can forget most of it by the time I read the book, so it surprises me. I did the same with this one and yet, it still felt like it should have been more vague. Like I’m trying to be now, funnily enough.
It’s a bit like movie trailers. Nowadays, we get scenes from all acts on them and I believe only act one should be featured in a movie trailer, especially when there’s a mystery in the plot. For books, I guess that’d be not mentioning anything that happens after 30%? More or less and depending on the book but…that was my biggest issue. It really confused me at some points.

Let’s talk about the characters first. This book is purposefully showing the characters as clichés. The sweet old lady who looks after everyone, the neighbour who doesn’t interact with others, the lesbian character, the OCD character, …it’s done with the intention of setting a specific kind of tone so I don’t have an issue with it. But it’s definitely something that some readers might not like so it’s worth mentioning. Others will love it, of course.
My issue wasn’t that the characters had that comedic undertone in a way or that they felt a bit cartoonish, but that the male characters were harder to distinguish. Ocean, Sophie, Mrs B. and Lily-Ann fit in a character category well, so it’s easy to know who’s who. With Hamilton and Nicholas, I struggled. And maybe it’s me having that issue and no one else has any difficulty with this but…it annoyed me a bit how often I stopped reading to ask myself “who’s Nicholas? Who’s Hamilton?”. Anthony was so different, I didn’t have an issue with him but the other two were a bit of a challenge for me. Again, maybe my fault.
The minor characters didn’t get a lot of page time but helped the plot progress very well. Piotr being the most interesting and least cartoonish of the book, in my opinion.

Moving on to that plot…I feel it was a bit all over the place. Given how we got the POVs (which wasn’t my favourite way to do it), I was curious about why Sophie’s was first person. Just Sophie’s. I had an idea as to why and won’t say what it is. I got it right, though I don’t think it was supposed to be a huge mystery. But even though it’s an explanation for the way the book was structured and the way the story was told, I’m not the biggest fan. It felt a bit choppy. And I feel that stylistic choice can be very hit or miss for readers. I appreciate the effort of trying to do something a little different but it didn’t work for me. I’ll say the pace picked up at around 60% and the story became more gripping so I enjoyed the second part of the book a lot more than the first.
The thing is that this is supposed to be a “cosy” mystery. Everything is cosy nowadays and I get that. I love feeling cosy and most people do. Life is awful enough and we want to get back home and do things that are comforting. When it comes to mystery and thrillers, I think I prefer being traumatised. I like that I tried this type of mystery too but, due to personal preference, I don’t think it’s the perfect subgenre for me. Which is fine and it doesn’t mean this book won’t work perfectly for others.

As for the mystery itself…I was quite underwhelmed. The twists didn’t feel very “twisty” and I don’t know how to feel about the reveal. And the thing is that I don’t dislike it. But the way it was presented made the reaction to the new information feel less shocking. I wasn’t gasping and opening my eyes wide because of how surprised I was by what I read. Maybe that’s a characteristic of cosy mysteries? I wouldn’t know. So maybe I’m judging it too harshly.
Maybe if it had a darker tone, some of the choices the characters made would feel more appropriate for the kind of people they’re supposed to be. I say maybe a lot in this review but I was constantly wondering about how little changes could alter my opinion on this book.

Very mixed feelings about this book, to be fair. Those who like novels who read a lot like a movie script (and therefore make it very easy to picture how everything is supposed to look like) will probably love this a lot more than I did.

My god! I loved this book. It is slow built. I enjoyed the conversations between characters and getting into each of their life. The setting gave both intriguing and mysterious vibe. But twists were so unpredictable. I felt the characters were too clever. Revelations at the end were so shocking and the ending was jaw dropping. This is a lighthearted cosy mystery with secrets, twists, murder mystery and twisted truth.

4.5

Thanks to the Publisher

I was invited to read this murder mystery by the publisher. This is not an author I was familiar with nor would I have requested it as I’m unfamiliar with the cultural norms of California and it would be easy to miss clues. That said, it is a well plotted story with diverse and realistic characters.

3.5 stars
It did take me a while to get into this book, there was a motley cast of characters. All of them had their own problems and secrets. As I got into the book, the more I enjoyed it. There were a few American terms that I wasn’t familiar with and had to look them up for clarification. What I liked about the story was the way all the neighbours came together for the sake of the others in their small community, and how they put the others’ needs before their own. It is quite involved and it’s not made clear as to what really happened until the ending. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Mrs B, the landlady, only rents the Marigold Cottages to selected tenants. They're a mixed, if slightly odd, bunch, who rub along together...until Anthony moves in straight out of prison, and a dead body turns up.

Mrs B is convinced he's innocent, and confesses to the crime. The rest of the tenants are appalled. They come together to clear her name, hence the Marigold Cottages Murder Collective.

But there's more to come...

Brilliant