I didn't care for this book at all. I found the main character to be extremely annoying. I also disliked the callous way that no one was particularly upset by the murders and regularly joked about them. It just didn't seem realistic. I gave this 2 stars because I was able to finish it but barely. ( )

A Body in the Backyard is a cozy mystery featuring spunky octogenarian Myrtle Clover. Myrtle's gardener finds a body in her backyard setting Myrtle of on solving the mystery mystery of whodunit. The lengths that Myrtle goes to trying to talk with potential subjects is too funny. While there is no great mystery in the book the characters are interesting and the story is entertaining. ( )

cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, family-dynamics, humor
Read from May 18, 2014 to September 30, 2016

Crazy fun cozy mystery with truly nutsy characters. Gets you laughing until you can't stop. Great stress buster! The publisher's blurb even gives a hint as to it's comedy.
Kathy Schrecongost gives a decent reading if you have the ability to alter speed to taste. ( )

Myrtle, though in her 80's, is busy sleuthing. A dead man has been found in her garden, bashed in the head with HER garden gnome. Her neighbor Miles recognizes him as a young relative.

This isn't the first murder Myrtle has investigated in competition with her son. Red, her son and Police Chief of Bradley, is always trying to sign her up for senior activities or recommending the local retirement home to her,
in essence questioning her abilities. Her pushback is to interfere in his police duties and solve the murder before he does.

A cozy mystery to enjoy. ( )

Myrtle Clover is definitely worth meeting. She's the most fun character I've met in a while. Some of the other characters are also fun. The main problem here is what you find a lot of in the ebook market: this is essentially a draft product rather than a finished one. Yes, a good copy editor would help, but what ever happened to writers who learned the tools of the trade? The mystery is slight, and is revealed a bit too easily. An interesting twist on a common flaw here: while many authors have difficulty showing us rather than telling us, this author seems to do both. Much better to drop all the telling and simply let us watch Myrtle in action. Occasionally, her uniquely fun voice suddenly gets lost, which is disconcerting, but this is most likely due to the writer failing to go back and check everything.

Many readers will have fun with this, but I can't help thinking what a shame it is that a writer with such talent doesn't put in the extra work to make her story shine. ( )