Digging Up the Remains was a fun and engaging cosy mystery. I liked the Garden Squad and the plot/storyline that had a few red herrings thrown into the mix.

The garden squad is back! As much as I dont care to garden, I do enjoy hearing about all the beautiful descriptions in this series.

A festive fall is in full swing in Goosebush, Massachusetts, but when a snoopy reporter is felled by foul play, it’s up to Lilly and her Garden Squad to spook out a killer. This is a very cute cosy that I really enjoyed reading while quarantined. It had the right amount of dark mystery combined with light dialog and interesting characters to keep me thoroughly entertained and distracted. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

small-town, senior-citizens, murder, journalist, extortion, friendship

The paparazzo is one really bad dude who will do anything, including blackmail to get what he wants. No surprise then when his almost warm body is found under a mess of leaves near the path of the town's 10K race signaling the beginning of the Fall Festival. The Garden Squad is a group of friends who have lived in the area and have known each other for enough decades that many are retired.
I think that this is one of those series books where the reader really needs to have read prior installments. It really doesn't stand alone well. Still, it's a good fun read full of twists and red herrings, and some really delightful characters, and I loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Digging up the Remains is the third installment in the A Garden Squad Mystery series featuring Lilly Jayne and her housemate Delia Greenway, set in the small town of Goosebush, Massachusetts. The annual Fall Festival is on the horizon and it has turned from a one weekend event into two weeks of activities including a 10K run and culminating in a Halloween stroll.

Serving on the Planning Committee, Lilly has also become the target of new to town reporter, Tyler Crane. It seems that Tyler has been digging up dirt by going through the town archives and is now threatening to unveil the buried secrets of several prominent townspeople. When Lilly discovers Tyler's body covered in leaves nobody seems to be heartbroken.

Teaming up with the other members of the Garden Squad including her neighbor Roddy Lyden and Ernie Johnson the owner of Bits, Bolts and Bulbs, Lilly and Delia set out to uncover a killer. A fast moving plot, the return of series regulars and a new furry addition to Windward keep the pages turning. Readers are introduced to new characters that will most likely be featured in future additions to the series, and learning that Lilly and Delia are going to have temporary house guests will leave you looking forward to the next adventures of the Garden Squad.

I received an advanced copy of Digging Up the Remains from NetGalley via Kensington Publishing. While not required to write a review I am happy to offer my honest opinion.

Halloween is the perfect setting for the latest Garden Squad mystery! The town of Goosebush, Maine is preparing for their Halloween festival and 10k run. However, when trouble-making reporter Tyler Crane is murdered, the decorative coffins become much too real! Lilly and the Garden Squad must figure out whose "story" Tyler was going to tell before the murderer strikes again and lives are destroyed.

Lilly and Delia are the perfect crime solving partners and each has her own strength she brings to the table. I love the supporting characters in the "Garden Squad" and their friendship and lives enhance the series. Any of the characters could have their own series! The Garden Squad series is like visiting with old friends. The book kept me engaged and I loved the descriptions of the sea and lush gardens and I fell in love with the newest addition to the family!

I'm wondering what mystery the Squad will solve next!

I received an ARC from NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.

Lilly Jane and the town of Goosebush are getting ready for a fall festival, but things aren't exactly ideal. New to town, reporter Tyler Crane is ruffling feathers and stirring up secrets as he digs for dirt on the town's residents, and someone is upset enough to kill. Lilly and the Garden Squad look into Tyler's murder, but as the investigation continues, secrets keep emerging, leaving the people of Goosebush the subject of nasty rumors, conjecture, and fear. Lilly and the Garden Squad must get to the bottom of the murder before the fall festival is ruined - as well as the lives and reputations of their neighbors.

The Garden Squad mysteries are such a delight to read, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to read this book, because I can't imagine waiting any longer to read them than necessary, these books are that fun! As I've been rewatching the show Murder She Wrote, and reading this book at the same time, it really brings home what I love about the Garden Squad mysteries - a fabulous older heroine, mourning a late husband but finding a life for herself while helping her friends and dealing with small, close-knit community angst, solving mysteries and always getting to the bottom of the mystery with minimal stress to the reader. I see a lot of Jessica Fletcher in Lilly Jane, and I love that the Julia Henry has taken a familiar formula and made it into something new, fun and fresh.

The plot to the book was excellent, and the mystery well crafted. Despite several red herrings I did not suspect who the 'killer' ended up being. I also really enjoyed the commentary on social media, blackmail and unsubstantiated gossip, the power of secrets, as well as questioning whether justice was truly served in the case. Like Lilly, I found myself dissatisfied with how justice was served, but I am hopeful that there is a path to a good future and healing for all involved. What a lovely book! Once more I can't wait until the next installment.

As always, I love that Julia Henry includes gardening tips at the end of the book. It's such a cute, charming thing to do, I love reading the tips and getting further insight into gardening.

It is windup time for the Fall Festival and run in Goosebush, Massachusetts. Town leader Lilly Jayne and others are busy raking the leaves so runners don’t slip, when nosy malicious reporter, Tyler Crane, shows up in the middle of the run course... dead. He had planned a series of expose’s and tried to blackmail Lilly and the rest of the community Lilly didn’t kill him but who else might have been a potential victim and taken matters in their own hands to stop him?
A classic who-dunnit plot this has a playful gardening twist and a killer who is not obvious so we want to continue reading. It is just delightful.
I would recommend this book to my patrons.

The Garden Squad is back in this exciting addition to the series.
Digging Up the Remains is the perfect title for this whirlwind adventure by Julia Henry.
Lillie and Delia are getting ready for the Fall Festival and things take a tragic turn when a reporter is found dead, under a pile of leaves.
No one seems too upset about the death of the unscrupulous reporter, but when it turns out to be murder, the suspect list grows longer by the minute.
I can’t wait to see what happens next in this fun series.

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of DIGGING UP THE REMAINS (Book 3 of the Garden Squad Mysteries) by Julia Henry in exchange for an honest review. Lilly and her Garden Squad are busy keeping a curmudgeon from conscripting a public path as his own personal property. In order to do this, they’ve rerouted the Fall Festival’s 10K fundraiser onto the path. This results in a battle of the leaves: the Garden Squad gathers and hauls away leaves littering the path, but, when they leave, the curmudgeon may be leaving them more leaves. Rather than leaving it be, the Garden Squad returns, and the process repeats. Finally, the day arrives, and the race is about to begin, but the Garden Squad’s victory in the battle of the leaves is tarnished when the body of a local reporter is found on the race route. Because the reporter had been digging up dirt on prominent families in the area, he had offended plenty of people. Lilly and the Garden Squad investigate to find out whose secret was worth killing for.

I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, which may be the reason why my attention tended to wander and why I had some trouble keeping the characters straight. I would recommend that you read the first two books before attempting this one. I recommend this book to fans of the series and to fans of Julia Henry. This book features a cozy mystery, murder, small town, town event, event planning, gardening, secrets, and a kitten.

#DiggingUptheRemains #NetGalley

Lilly and Delia are prepping for the Fall Halloween events in Goosebush, including a haunted house in their front yard. As the ladies and some friends are sweeping up leaves before the kick off 10k run, they find the body of their newest resident, a journalist who seemed to be digging for dirt in town and blackmailing residents to get what he wanted in exchange for keeping their secrets.

The morning of the race, the journalist started to post cryptic messages that revealed a small taste of a secret about a handful of different residents. With his murder, each one of these people becomes a suspect, including Lilly. But whose secret was so dark that they would kill to keep it from seeing the light if day? That’s what Lilly and the Garden Squad plan to find out.

The setting for this series is part of the charm, as is the history of the town and the founding families. With a strong female protagonist and a cast of supporting characters, the author delivers a solid entry with each new book. Can’t wait for the next one to drop!