The Sunflower Plot

Celia Grant #7

by John Sherwood

When gardening expert and amateur sleuth Celia Grant accepts a commision at the country estate of Clintbury to design a fake Elizabethan garden for an eccentric client, she finds herself caught up in a household permeated with deception, intrigue, and murder

Genres: Fiction

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

John Sherwood is an author of fiction. He wrote the cozy Celia Grant Horticultural mystery series, amongst others.

Reviews

[Sherry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amateur detective and horticulturalist, Celia Grant, accepts a job designing an Elizabethan garden for a rich, eccentric client, Victor Stratton. She is grateful to have this job opportunity because her small greenhouse business is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Celia begins the garden project just as the Stratton family becomes embroiled in a local murder scandal. The police have been monitoring the Stratton estate and notice Celia's visits to the estate. They immediately take her into their confidence, requesting her help as an inside informant. By this time Celia has already gotten a glimpse of the Stratton family secrets and she is not interested in becoming involved in their lives any further. However, because of Celia's dire financial situation, and a generous monetary offer from the police for her intel service, she reluctantly agrees to continue to design Stratton's garden until she can uncover information helpful to the police in their investigations.

Being an amateur sleuth, Celia willingly offers her opinion on the situation. Her theories clash with the young detective, Porter, who is running the investigation and the relationship that develops between them is uncomfortable. It actually seems to add an unnecessary distraction to the story but I suppose it provides some obstacles to the plot. The plot then moves off into many different, bizarre directions as they follow leads, none being very convincing. There is no real twist in the story so you are just left waiting for the "red herrings" to fall flat so you can get to the ending.

There are a few awkward references to a storyline in a previous book in the series but it seemed pointless to me. I think it was supposed to cast some doubt about Celia's theories in this story but that was not my reaction. I just thought "why are you telling me this?"

I have not read any other books in this series but I do like the Celia Grant character and so I might read at least one more book in the series. Hopefully it will be a better storyline than in this particular book.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bit far-fetched