Julia Henry's latest in her A Garden Squad Mystery series is spectacular. From start to finish it was filled with the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, wonderful characters and delightful hints of romance. I am especially appreciative of characters of all ages and backgrounds that meld together to make a family of sorts that has each other's back and supports in all ways. The subject of the mystery was fascinating and I learned a great deal about burial practices-a great fall plot. I am anxiously awaiting more in the series and highly recommend it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I have not previously read any of Julia Henry's Garden Squad Series. Working to beautify their small New England town, the garden squad finds themselves wrapped up in another murder investigation. I enjoy this series and find myself getting caught up in the lives of these colorful characters.

The writing is good. It was hard to just jump into the series. there were descriptions and little pieces f information that could have been useful.

The Plot Thickets is a fabulous book, the relationship between Lilly Jayne and her Garden Squad play a major part in the appeal of the story.
The storyline flows nicely and the characters are warm and relatable.
Lilly and her close group of friends are drawn into solving the mystery of the local cemetery. As the story unfolds, more questions are raised, the answers will take time to be revealed.
I enjoy a warm cosy mystery, this book delivers as it explores friendships along with a murder! I wasn’t aware of this series so will definitely read the previous books!

Thanks so much to the publisher, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this wonderful book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the fifth release in the charming "Garden Squad Mystery" series by cozy author Julia Henry. I enjoy this fun series because the author features savvy smart active seniors as her primary charcters. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley. My review opinion is my own.

It is a beautful spring in Goosebush Mass and the garden squard Lily and Della have a new project of cleaning up the local cemetary and doing some landscaping. They are distressed to find graves disturbed and damaged. The new caretaker of the cemetary is the owner of the local funeral home and found dead. Lilly and Della believe it was murder not a accidential death. Soon they are on the right track of multiple suspects as the victim was disliked by many. As the clues add up so do the red herrings and this sleuth took so many turns I was engaged to read it to the pleasing conclusion. A fun mystery and a enjoyable return to the garden squad.

The Plot Thickets by Julia Henry is the fifth book in the Garden Squad Mystery series. Lilly Jayne and her Garden Squad have a couple mysteries to solve in this book. First of all, I have to say that usually I don't like murder mysteries where the murder doesn't take place until half-way through the book but in this storyline the timing is perfect. I really like it. My attention was riveted from the very beginning. The first half of the book covers the mystery of the strange things happening at the local cemetery which is necessary for the murder mystery to make sense.

This is a delightfully complex whodunit. There's lots going on and quite the group effort to solve the mysteries. I really like the characters and their relationships. Looks like "love is in the air."

I've read the last three of five in this series, with The Plot Thickets the latest (and soon to be publishe. I remain a little skeptical of Lilly Jayne--she's too perfect. Oh, the author has her complain about aches and pains, but she's always right and everyone in town defers to her opinions and tastes, and I find her a little supercilious and obnoxious because of that. But I really like some of the secondary characters, like Ernie and Tamara, and I love the setting: a small town in Massachusetts where everyone knows each other. The fictive family they have created includes everyone in holidays and dinners, looks out for each other, and everyone's social and political sensibilities are in line (if they are not, they will be a major suspect or the next victim). I like this fictional town, despite it's silly name, and I read the series for the cosiness I feel stepping into that place. In this book, Lilly discovers something odd is happening at the town cemetery, and she and Delia dive deep into the historical records and the funeral business to figure out who is behind the shenanigans and why. There is character development across the series, but you can read them out of order without feeling lost. I was inspired to get books 1 and 2 from my library to get a little more of the backstory. Some of the plot devices felt a little underdeveloped and others felt stretched, but I enjoyed the book and my visit to this caring, too-perfect little town.

Lily Jayne and her friends in a small Massachusetts town decide to clean up a local cemetery. They couldn't foresee just how much needed to be cleaned up! There's evil going on in the cemetery and around the town, and Lily and hr friends soon find themselves in danger.

I like Lily and her friends and the mystery is well constructed. The relationships are the most important part of the book.

The Plot Thickets is the fifth book in the Garden Squad Mystery series. The series is going strong and Lilly and her friends become involved in solving another mystery. Someone is killed in the historic Goosebush cemetery, where the Garden Squad was about to start a beautification project. The mystery is a good one with lots of suspects.

This is one of my favorite series. There is a lot of garden talk, which I love. The main character, Lilly, is in her sixties and is very wise (but doesn’t act like she’s perfect). The character is very true to life, with some aches and pains – but nothing depressing. She continues to build friendships and possibly a romance. The supporting characters are great too.

The book (and series) is well written and is a pleasure to read. Whenever I finish one of the books, I always feel positive, energized, and ready to get after everything in life. That’s why I love these Garden Squad books so much. While I wish there were more published than usually one a year, I appreciate the time the author takes to tell a great story, and write a book without errors. I also like how the books in the series – the stories themselves - aren’t spaced too far apart. For example, its usually only a couple of months between when the characters are solving another mystery. So, it feels like we are following the characters close to real time. I really like that about this series, versus other series’ where 6 months can lapse between the stories/mysteries (I don’t like that).

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books/Cozies for this wonderful ARC. I will post this review to my blog, Goodreads, Bookbub, & Amazon accounts on the publication date, 10/25/22.

Julia Henry's "The Plot Thickets" is a win for the cozy mystery genre! Fast-paced, quirky read. Loved it.

Ebook/Murder Mystery: I got this book from Netgalley because it looked like an interesting plot. I almost wrote this review as a DNF, but I wanted to know what happened. From the jump, you know this book's theme is fraud in the cemetery business.
Lily is a woman who's up in age, but keeps active, and like me, overexerts herself at times. I can so relate to it. Since I haven't read any of the previous books, I did have a hard time with other character's descriptions and ages.

Gardening sleuth Lilly is back in another mystery. I struggled to get into this one as I hadn’t read any of the previous ones. In other series, this is fine but here I didn’t know who anyone was and there was no backstory when Lilly appears. It also took a little while to get to the mystery. The mystery itself was fine but not my favorite cozy series.

This series has always been a hit or a miss for me.
It's a good solid cozy, with the expected hallmarks, but it just leaves me a little flat.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Lilly Jayne is doing research for the Beautification Committee at the Goosebush Cemetery, Things aren't quite like Lilly remembers since she was there last. For one thing some headstones seem to be missing and some moved and the bench that sits at her family mausoleum is moved to the other side. When the woman running the cemetery is found murdered the investigation into the discrepancies really ramps up. What is found is another dead person and so much more. .

The story was just dragged on for me. I kept wondering when it was going to be over. It was clear from the start how the story line would develop. And, how could you not know who the killer was? Lily is constantly being told. Good grief, woman! Take the hint!

A waste of a potentially interesting crew of characters.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Another great entry in The Garden Squad series. A fun cozy with great setting and characters. You are in for a real treat if you haven't read this series all are great but best to start from the beginning, wonderful character development. Looking forward to the next.

What could go wrong in tidying up and beautifying an historical cemetery? A lot apparently! With an a plot that has plenty of twist and turns to keep in interesting, lovable characters, a quaint New England town as a setting, this is an enjoyable read and series.

cozy-mystery, Massachusetts, small-town, friendship, relatives, small-business, conflict, family, murder, murder-investigation, embezzling, series*****

The Garden Squad is a group of friends who have lived in their small town (mostly forever) and have known each other for enough decades that many are retired.
The plot revolves around weird goings on at the town cemetery (a concept I am completely unfamiliar with). There are interconnected side plots as well to make you root for the nasty one to be murdered. Let the sleuthing begin! Despite it being in series, I think that there is enough series history included that it can easily stand alone. It's a good fun read full of twists, red herrings, and some really delightful characters, and I loved it!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

The residents of Goosebush, Massachusetts are enjoying Spring and the beautiful change it brings. However, their relatives who are resting in the historical Goosebush Cemetery, are not R.I.P! When the director of the Bradford Funeral Homes is murdered, Lily Jayne and the Garden Squad are on the case!

Lily Jayne and her friends are some of my favorite cozy characters. Diversity is always a part of the series and plain old common sense rules. This mystery finds the squad trying to figure out why plots are being moved or worse, why bodies are moved. There were so many red herrings and twists and I loved every one!
While there is romance, it doesn't overshadow the mystery. I'd like to say more on the romances, but no spoilers!

Take a Spring break and visit Goosebush and the wonderful community that Julia Henry has created!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I could never get tired of reading about what adventures the garden squad gets into. Lilly Jane is one of my top favorite characters. She is a classy and strong women with a keen eye for clues

Another fun cozy mystery by Julia Henry! I enjoyed the story throughout! The plot had me guessing and I enjoyed every minute of it! Five stars!