Going Organic Can Kill You

A Blossom Valley Mystery #1

by Staci McLaughlin

Marketing maven Dana Lewis returns home to discover that healthy living can be murder in the first Blossom Valley Mystery—“100% organic fun!” (Laura Levine).  Welcome to Blossom Valley, California, home of the O’Connell Organic Farm and Spa, complete with its new marketing maven, Dana Lewis, former Blossom Valley resident, unapologetic junk food connoisseur—and soon-to-be sleuth . . .   As Dana readjusts to life back home with her recently widowed mother, her latest career move isn’t exactly a piece of cake. In fact, it’s all tofu fish sticks, stuffed squash blossoms, and enough wheat grass shots to scream bloody murder—especially when Dana discovers the body of Maxwell Mendelsohn, Hollywood producer and opening weekend guest, deader than a yoga corpse pose.   While Dana pens the spa’s blog and balances the attentions of the local police and reporter Jason Forrester, her escalating job duties now include finding clues, motives, and suspects. One thing’s for certain, she better catch the killer before her free-range goose is cooked.   “A sprightly mix of humor and homicide, featuring an engaging heroine and a fast-paced plot that zips along to an exciting climax.” —Laura Levine, author of Pampered to Death

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Adult Fiction

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2011

About the author

Staci McLaughlin was a technical writer in Silicon Valley for eight years before becoming a freelance writer. She is currently a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of the LadyKillers, a group of thirteen writers who alternate posting daily blogs at www.theladykillers.typepad.com, as well as blogging on her own web site.

Her first book, Going Organic Can Kill You, was released July, 2012, by Kensington. The second book in the series, All Natural Murder, was released February 5, 2013.

Reviews

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not impressed.

Things I didn't like:
- I guessed the murderer at the first clue
- Weak or unlikeable secondary characters: Her boss is supposed to be creating/running a spa to appeal to the Hollywood set and she practically needs therapy to get dressed in the morning. Her love interest comes across as a prig from the very first interaction, but we're supposed to cheer this budding romance on?!? (She spills coffee on the *outside* of his car (to avoid burning him with it when she trips) and he FREAKS out, rushing to the trunk to fetch towels to make sure the spill is all cleaned up. It's a Volvo.) Her sister acts like an immature teenager throughout most of the book and dates ex-cons and greasy haired mechanics but Dana, several times throughout the book, envies her sisters' ability to attract men. huh?? The manager of the spa is written as so hateful and rude that in NO universe is it possible to imagine him not being fired after page 13.

Things I did like:
- GREAT setting - I love the idea of the organic farm/spa and it's a great setting for future mayhem.
- I like the cook, Zennia, and the housekeeper, Heather - they were the only secondary characters that felt genuine and not like caricatures.
- The suspects were all well written characters.
- Dana is a great heroine - she doesn't take anything from anyone and doesn't hesitate to get in someone's face and defend herself, if necessary. There's a hint of humour and snark, which I like.
- The ending was, I thought, really well done. The author avoided the clichéd heroine-doing-something-stupid routine and managed to end the book with Dana doing something I think anyone would think was smart, but still got her into trouble.

Overall, I'm not sure I'll buy the second book, but I'll keep my eye out for it. First books in a cozy series can often be the weakest and I hope to see significant growth in future books.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just want to preface this by saying that I have this ideal thought in my head that I would love to live on a farm, and how much nicer it would be to spend more time outside instead of working inside. Well, I can say that this book (unlike others that help idealize it) helped show that maybe that's not the life for me.

This book starts out with Dana having to wrestle and escape pig back into it's pen. We soon find out that this is not her actual job....really she is the marketing person for the new Blossom Valley Spa, a relaxing retreat with a pool and yoga and organic meals. (If anyone was thinking about eating more organic...this novel will not help support your case. Instead, Dana really hates the food and her descriptions will have you running for the nearest fast food place). As a favor, she helps Heather with changing the guest towels...and ends up finding a body of one of the guests.

She quickly becomes involved as her boss and her mom both urge her to solve the murder and save the farm (while also staying safe of course). There seem to be a couple suspects, but none of them really have a strong enough motive for a horrific murder. Dana seems stumped and only figures it out at the end when the pieces fall into place in her mind.

I was not surprised by the identity of the murderer. Christian seems to be everywhere all the time. He is always described as strong and a ladies man...always staring at all the women. I will say I definitely would not walk into a dark woods with ANYONE and definitely not after 2 murders. But this is typically how it goes with cozy mysteries.

I thought this book was okay. I didn't love it or hate it. I like Dana and her sister Ashlee, but the other characters seem more meh and flat. Hopefully that will change in future books, because I like the setting of a farm-spa.

[Text Addict · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely ordinary mystery; just shy of boring, in fact. I didn't care about the fate of the new health spa (an effort to save the farm), perhaps partly because Dana, the viewpoint character, took a while to get vested in it herself. (If it had been her mom's farm, the investment would've been there immediately, but it started off as just a job for her. Admittedly, she hadn't had a job for nine months, but her worry about that didn't come across very strongly either.)

The only characters I really found interesting were the annoying ones (Gordon and Ashlee). The romance left me cold. The cover blurbs claim it's funny, but I was mildly amused on occasion, at best. Stock characters included a hostile police officer who didn't ask enough of the right questions and a vegetarian cook whose offerings seem inedible to Dana (and many of the guests). The pacing was off, failing to generate much tension (or humor). Worst of all, Dana didn't solve the mystery, she bumbled into convincing the (rather paranoid) killer that she knew too much.

Really, to me the best aspect of it was the part of the setting that was about how the Great Recession is affecting the small town of Blossom Valley, not to mention Dana's career. And that's because that falls close to my areas of scholarly expertise.

Here's hoping that the author improves with experience - the possibility of that is definitely there.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by Ms. McLaughlin and I liked it. A mystery that involves farming, terrible organic cooking (per the m.c.), yoga and a marketing consultant-cum-maid-kitchen helper-farm hand (and whatever else needs doing). It makes me want to read the next one just to see if the Spa survives the many calamities of opening day.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very disappointing. I wanted so much to like it, but the writing and dialog were almost too much to bear at some points. There was a lot of jumping around, story lines that were not fully developed, conversations that were rushed or would end too quickly, and humor that was out of place. I'm sure that this author is still trying to find her voice, and I understand that it is the first book in the series, but I will have to think about whether I would continue on and read the next one. There are so many good books out there, and not enough time as it is.

[Danielle Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It’s a cozy mystery set in Northern California at a farm/spa getaway. Dana, a marketing rep, is laid off from her work in the Bay area and moves back home to her small town to live with her recently widowed mother. She puts her talents to work by taking a job at a new local venture – a farm that is now a hotel and spa retreat. She is in charge of the advertising and marketing materials. They open with the rooms full of Hollywood movie makers, but one ends up dead. Dana doesn’t want to see this new venture fall apart, and she sets to work to find out what happened. The characters were actually interesting. Dana made a fun sleuth getting into trouble with the local detective and other strange residents. This is the first in a series, so I’ll definitely try out the next one.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a light hearted book. This was okay but really drawn out. Just ok for me.

[A.K. Frailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it:) Very entertaining with a great mystery and clean romantic elements. I'll keep my eye out for more of Staci's books.

[Min · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm having a difficult time expressing why I didn't like this book. The characters all seem uneven and, at times, contradictory. Heather (a minor character) is the only one who doesn't come off as clichéd or annoying. I didn't figure out the identity of the murderer early on but that's mostly because I couldn't bring myself to care.

The story takes place, for the most part, on a farm/spa which emphasises vegetarian healthy living. The author even includes some tips and suggestions (which are supposed to be from the spa's blog) at the end. However, throughout the book, whenever Zennia's food is described or mentioned, Dana's descriptions always make the food sound disgusting. If I, as the reader, am supposed to care about this spa and farm, hearing about how horrible the food is won't help me picture myself there...unless I'm there to punish myself.
Esther, the owner, is a pathetic, weak, snivelling woman and does nothing to change that perception - except for the complete 180 at the end when she actually stands up to Gordon and seems to have found a spine.
Zennia is always in the kitchen so it's hard to get a good bead on her character. She could go either way - cool, interesting character with a rich history or boring, cutout hippie character which will only serve to annoy and/or provide sage advice to Dana.
Gordon...no idea why anyone would continue to employ him after the behaviour he exhibits. Not once does he provide an iota of human understanding or compassion. As a character, he seems to serve as the source of everyone's irritation.
Ashlee. She should have been killed off before the story started. She seems to be just filler. Annoying filler at that.
Dana's mom has potential. She isn't really around much or for very long but, as she is the reason Dana gives for coming back to Blossom Valley, she might have more of a presence in the later books.
Jason's entry into the story is aggressive. Why the author chooses to then try and make him a nice guy later in the story just doesn't jive. Either he's an ass or he's a nice guy (not that a character can't be both) - choose one, please. Also, I don't see any chemistry between Dana and him; it seems that Dana must have a love interest and so he is Jason. As a reporter, he doesn't seem to be very believable.
Detective Caffrey is just hostile. I imagine his only reason d'être in this book is to be Dana's foil. Sadly, that's all he seems to be capable of in this story.
There are other characters. I just don't care enough to make any comments about them.

See? A lot of what annoys me is kind of petty and not well explained. I think the tone and dialog also play a large part in my dislike of the book. I scanned through many pages because the tone and/or the dialog simply defeated my ability to care about words having meaning.

So two stars because, though I didn't like the book, I did get through it all and it's a first in a series which, let's face it, are usually not the best books in a series. I won't be continuing with this series, though, so I guess it should really be more of a 1.5.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great cozy.

Dana goes back home to Blossom Valley to help her mother through the grieving process after losing her father to a heart attack. Her mom finds her a job at a Health Spa Farm run by a kind woman, Esther, from her mother's grief group.

On the grand opening weekend, Dana finds a murdered guest in one of the cabins. Uh oh...looks like bad news for the spa as guests start to check out. Dana must find the murderer to save the spa and her job. There are lots of suspects, from the diverse staff to the many guests. Anyone could have had a motive.

I liked the characters in this book. Dana was not a sap who took a lot of guff, and she was funny. The only thing I didn't like was that she thought her sister was so good at getting men (unlike her), when really, she seemed a bit slutty...going after shmucks and ex cons. I would not like to think that a smart woman would think highly of a sister who did this. But that was really the only big flaw in my mind...after all, this is a cozy, and they are not known for any true reality.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, how I had high hopes for this book only to be let down. I had such a hard time getting into the story. The premise of an organic farm/spa I thought has so much potential, I just don't think it quite got there. I liked the setting of the story, unfortunately I think it was the only thing I really liked. I got to a certain point and was bored and didn't care anymore so I skimmed the rest of the book, I did want to see how things were wrapped up. I gave the book three stars because I thought the writing itself was well done. Will I read another book in this series? I don't know.

[Patricia Gligor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading "Going Organic Can Kill You" by Staci McLaughlin last night and I hated to see it end. Not only was it an intriguing mystery but it also made me laugh - a lot - and it was an "uplifting" novel. Ms. McLaughlin's main character, Dana, is a likeable, interesting and funny young woman who uses humor to get through some tough situations. Also, the author did a great job of concealing the identity of the killer until the very end. I highly recommend this book.

[Serena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this book because of one character. I hated the ass and hoped beyond hope that he'd either get fired or bumped off...halfway through he was still an ass and I just didn't care about the rest of the story enough to finish it...not my normal way of doing things, but there it is.

[JoAnne McMaster (Any Good Book) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dana has moved back home after she lost her job and her father died, and her mother got her a job at a new Spa and Farm that has recently opened. She's the marketing person and has been hired to promote the new business.

She's also been railroaded into chasing an errant pig and helping put towels in guests' rooms. It's this last act that brings her to the fact of find a dead guest; a murdered dead guest, to be exact. Now she's trying to figure out who killed him and how she's going to get another job if this one doesn't pan out because dead bodies have a way of making things go south...

This is the first book in the series and I thought it had a pretty good premise from the blurb, but I was wrong. Dana is rather a snob, her ‘inner person’ making snide comments about people. Supposedly this is an organic farm and spa, but nowhere does it say this is (to put it bluntly) a fat farm. So why is the cook serving the guests inedible food? Nothing sounded the least bit appetizing - even Dana couldn’t stand it; and none of the guests seemed to be eating it, yet the cook wasn’t replaced and she was still serving them garbage fit for their pig, Wilbur. A spa, in case the author doesn’t know, quite often has wonderful, world class cuisine, because they want the guests to return. This place, it seems, caters to having one-time only guests since they don’t feed them properly and can’t keep their farm animals penned. This is not a place I’d want to visit, even if it was free.

The proprietor, Esther O'Connell, is completely scatter-brained and we’re given to understand that she’s a blithering idiot since her husband died. So did her husband take care of everything while his “little woman” didn’t have to "worry her pretty head" about anything? Because that’s the impression I got right away from the first chapters. That the woman is incapable of running a business at all - and she should have sold it immediately.

The manager, Gordon Stewart, is a pompous ass who has no place at the farm. He seems to think helping when it’s needed is beneath him, and therefore, he too should have been replaced. I couldn’t stand his character, and was hoping he’d be the next body discovered. I also wanted to know what a marketing person was doing serving guests and then given housekeeping duties. I would have flat out refused. People are hired for specific jobs, and if they can’t do them, they need to be let go. This is the worst-run business I’ve ever read about, and I’m not even twenty pages into it, which pretty much tells you my opinion of the book. How did it get five-star ratings with things like this?

Her sister is horrible. Harassing Dana to tell her all about a dead man instead of being sympathetic. What kind of person does that? Dana’s mother should have sent her to her room. Speaking of which, why are two adult daughters living at home with their mother? I get that Dana was out of work for awhile, but Ashlee has a job, sooo....not to mention the two girls act like teenagers instead of adults, taunting each other. Honestly? This is supposed to pass for humor? Or are we supposed to figure out that Ashlee is a witch? Also, Dana is twenty-eight, and her mother is telling her what to eat. So skinny is healthy? She basically said if she had an ounce of fat on her, Dana couldn’t get a man. How offensive is that? On so many levels, yet. (As far as cereal goes, unless you’re eating an entire box at breakfast, it’s not going to harm you physically as much as sucking down diet sodas, fast food and junk food all day will).

Also, I would like to believe that people aren’t so ghoulish as to want to stay in a room where a man was murdered the day before. I’d also say that it’s probably not plausible. Even the most seasoned ghost hunter would wait until the corpse wasn’t around anywhere close. We're supposed to believe that people are lining up to sleep in a room where the man was murdered. Even the famous Hollywood Hotel doesn't get this kind of action. At any rate, I couldn’t stand any of the characters, so this series is a no-go for me.

I wish I had something good to say about this book, but there just isn't anything at all. The manager is pompous, the cook a glorified hippie who wants to serve people lawns, the maid lazy, the owner flaky, Dana's mother pushy, her sister nasty, the boyfriend even has a nasty streak, and Dana is snide and thinks she's better than anyone else. All the secondary characters are unlikable, too. There are a lot better books out there, and I'm not wasting any more time reading this series.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars
Welcome to Blossom Valley, California, home of the O’Connell Organic Farm and Spa, complete with its new marketing maven, Dana Lewis, former Blossom Valley resident, unapologetic junk food connoisseur—and soon-to-be sleuth . . .

After her father died Dana has watched her mother slowly stop living, so when her career goes on a year of nonexistence Dana moves back to her small home town to try and bring her mom back to the world of the living. Her mom has landed her a job as the marketing exec at the new organic farm and Dana gladly accepts.
Dana meets quirky guests and even quirkier animals! She soon is talked into filling in the needed positions to run to Spa. As she is changing towels in the guest cabins
Dana discovers the body of Maxwell Mendelsohn, Hollywood producer and opening weekend guest, dead in his cabin.
With the fear of the Spa failing and closing, Dana steps in to try to figure out who did it.
I enjoyed the story and the characters were nicely established. The Farm/Spa setting sounds wonderful and I loved going on walks there with Dana. A few chuckles were caused too!
Would recommend this to anyone and look forward to the next one in the series!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the thing....this is an organic farm/spa themed book, but the protagonist hates healthy food. Like, not just "gets tired of eating healthy", but hates healthy food and doesn't want to even try anything. Her idea of good food is McDonalds and fried chicken. Although it's an interesting perspective, it was disappointing for me when I chose to read the book because of the topic. I wanted to read about good organic food and healthy recipes. It's like getting a baking cozy, but the protagonist hates to bake. Her POV only gives one healthy food item a good description, and it's fried. I always give a series a second chance, so I guess I'll have to see how the next one goes.

[Arow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked and disliked this book. I just couldn't get over some of the sceniros and interactions Dana had with other characters in the book.

I enjoyed the love interest though so I am reading book 2 to see where it all goes.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Healthy Mishaps!

I enjoyed this funny cozy mystery, and trying to figure out the mystery. Could it have been the tofu fish sticks or maybe the antics of Wilber the pig? You will just have to read it!

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun start to a new cozy series set in Blossom Valley, CA. Dana moves back home after leaving her marketing job in San Jose and lands a job at a local organic farm turned spa, where “other duties as assigned” includes chasing loose pigs, collecting eggs from the hens, and finding dead bodies.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review coming soon.

[Cathie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of fun light whodunnit.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect you would never tried to create a high end spa next to a pigpen if you had even smelled a pig farm.

[Alison (Lady Coffin) S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute

Cute, finicky and like the setting. Living Northern California I can relate to a lot of the places mentioned in the story.

[Susan Moxley]

A mystery about a organic spa and farm where two murders happen.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay read, but won’t be moving on with the series.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, light mystery revolving around a spa. In particular, the spa's grand opening. Good!

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun cozy mystery about a farm turned spa and Murder.

[Gale Penton · Rating 4 out of 5]

New author and series. It was a good read and a good mystery

[Cristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally I like cozy mysteries because they have quirky characters in charming settings. Dana was not that interesting and came off a bit dumb.