Pushing Up Daisies

Rosemary Harris, the author of the first in a new series: Pushing Up Daisies, has the Fairfield County society nailed. From the current mix of working folks, the yuppies they work for, and the ‘old blood’ descendants, the characterizations are spot on. Weaving all the quirks of the various inhabitants together into intriguing mystery is done with a light hand: carefully building upon tidbits gleaned from various sources. Rosemary Harris provides enough background when introducing a new character to grab the readers interest but not too much to give away the eventual ending.

Plotted as carefully as a master gardener would design a new garden, Pushing up Daisies leads the read down a carefully constructed ‘garden path’. Clues are show more dropped as planting areas are planned, leading the reader one direction then another. The final planting area reveals a cleverly concealed culprit weaving together all the various elements of the landscape. Paula Holliday is a crafty gardener, keen observer of people and the perfect foil for the culprit. Sprinkled throughout the mystery are factual details about plants and garden design lending credence to the ‘snooping’ performed as part of gardening activities. .

As the debut of a new cozy series, the ground work, every pun intended, is well designed for future exploits of the newest suburban sleuth. Containing every element of a cozy, including the requisite hints at personal entanglements, Pushing Up Daisies will sure to please the most discerning cozy reader. show less

Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris is a delightful cozy mystery. Paula Holliday has given up her life in New York City to come to Springfield, Connecticut to start a gardening/landscaping business. Getting her first big job, that of reviving the gardens of a mansion recently inherited by the local historical society, Paula uncovers the mummified corpse of an infant. Of course, as in any good cozy mystery, Paula embarks on finding out who buried the infant, much to the dismay of the local police.
I truly enjoyed this mystery. Paula had the requisite wise-cracking friend, actually two of them, her friend Lucy from New York City and Babe, the owner of the local diner. I found the characters well fleshed out and the banter was witty and show more amusing. Paula’s exchanges with Sergeant Mike O’Malley were fun to follow and I’m hoping their relationship develops in the next installment of this proposed series. Because I am from Connecticut I particularly enjoyed this book and found references to things I am familiar with enjoyable, particularly her reference to Dunkin Donuts coffee, one of my favorite things! show less

I'm more than 20 books behind posting on Goodreads, so borrowing synopsis from Amazon:
Meet Paula Holliday, a transplanted media exec who trades her stilettos for garden clogs when she makes the move from the big city to the suburbs to start a gardening business. Paula can handle deer, slugs and the occasional human pest - but she's not prepared for the mummified body she finds while restoring the gardens at Halcyon, a local landmark.

Casual snooping turns serious when a body is impaled on a garden tool and one of Paula's friends is arrested for the crime.

Paula was fun, and so were her friends. The author obviously knows her gardening, but it wasn't crammed down the reader's throat. I do have the next in the series, the Big Dirt Nap, on show more my to-get list. The book DOES need some editing, and I kept catching some of the clever statements being made repeatedly. There are so many readers that would just love to edit in exchange for a free copy.. don't understand why authors don't take advantage of that. show less

Rosemary Harris's first mystery novel has some flaws, but it also has some positive aspects that kept me turning the pages. I think the strongest aspect of the book is its characterization. Paula Holliday, former television executive, budding landscaper (pun intended), and amateur sleuth, would be an interesting person to meet at a social event. She has a good sense of humor, she doesn't have odd personality quirks, and, unlike so many cozy heroines, she is smart enough not to do her sleuthing by herself in the wee hours of the night. The diner owner, Babe, Paula's landscaping assistant, Hugo, her domestic helper, Anna, and policeman, Mike O'Malley, are all well-defined, likeable characters. The only member of Paula's circle I didn't show more care for was her friend, Lucy, from her days in the television business.

The plot needed tightening up. There were extraneous details that needed to be edited out, and there also seemed to be some missing information that needed to be filled in. I was expecting to read about plants and gardening since Paula is a gardener, but at times it seems like the author included information just to display her gardening knowledge rather than to further the plot.

I read an advanced reader's edition loaned to me by a friend. Perhaps some of the problems were fixed in the published version – or perhaps not. show less

ADVANCE READER COPY
A murder mystery set in small town America with the perquisite coffee and donut hangout, Irish Amerian cop, unbearably fit and toned female protagonist with a tony big city friend, "Pushing up Daisies" tells a somewhat predictable story, although not unbearably so. Paula Holliday is a former advertising exec turned master gardener who stumbles on the well-preserved body of a baby in a garden she is to resurrect for the town's historical society. Could it be the child of one of the two spinster sisters who lived in the house until their deaths? As with any small town, there are secrets within secrets and Paula's discovery begins to lay some of them open.

I enjoyed Harris's gardening knowledge - being a gardener, I was show more poised to pick apart any mistakes but this aspect was knowledgeably done. I agreed with her stance on Mexican labourers. However, I found the constant verbal repartee just a bit heavy handed, wishing there was less of the fast, smart talk and more action and real suspense. The story dragged heavily in parts. I found the plot predictable and the end known well before I got there and finished it only out of duty as an early reader. It would have benefitted from more in-depth character development, given its slower action. show less

I love cozies and I love gardening, so choosing this book among the new cozies coming out was easy-cheesy. It pretty much made its way quickly to the top of the stack to read. It was my purse book as it fit the criteria (small enough to fit, easy to remember the story between reading time, fast moving story) and it didn't take long to read through this one thanks to sip'n'read times every once in a while and a wait for my car registration. And it was a good story.
The story has the gardening background to keep me interested and some good quirky characters, especially the side characters who help Paula investigate.
The mystery was a little loosey-goosey, but a decent one that kept me guessing and I was startled at the end with the show more whodunnit.
My one ishy bit was Paula's off and on issues with working out or what she ate. I either skipped over the part where she explained her issues or that she had been heavy in the past or her family had a propensity for weight, but she gardens and as hard as she works at that, the other issues of how much she'd have to run to work off something she'd eaten that wasn't healthy kind of bugged me. That could be because I deal with the weight issues in my own way, but I don't remember it being explained.
I do hope Felix comes back to town...he sounded yummy.....
All the way around, a good sturdy mystery with a fab premise and I look forward to reading more of this series.
Four diggin' in the dirt can lead to mystery beans... show less

3.5*
A decent cozy mystery. I wonder if the author has ever really been short of money though - her main character Paula is supposedly barely making ends meet but she can afford massages & manicures?