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DI Bethany Smith #2
Down in the Garden
Please note this is a revised edition of Down in the Garden.
No one likes being led down the garden path . . .
Ellie White has just been murdered. Her killer puts her in a red dress and glittery shoes, loads her into the back of his Transit van, and dumps her body at the bottom of her own garden.
The following day, Detective Inspector Bethany Smith is called in. Ellie’s right where the killer left her — placed beside a stone fountain.
The team discovers her eyelashes have been replaced with spider’s legs. Her ears are stuffed with dead ants and a slug, a worm is wedged in her nose and a plastic butterfly is left in place of her tongue.
The sight makes Bethany’s skin crawl.
The next day another body is discovered. The victim has suffered the same gruesome fate. Left for dead at the bottom of his garden where the creepy-crawlies can get to him.
Two down. Two to go.
The clock is ticking for Detective Bethany Smith and her team.
No one likes being led down the garden path . . .
Ellie White has just been murdered. Her killer puts her in a red dress and glittery shoes, loads her into the back of his Transit van, and dumps her body at the bottom of her own garden.
The following day, Detective Inspector Bethany Smith is called in. Ellie’s right where the killer left her — placed beside a stone fountain.
The team discovers her eyelashes have been replaced with spider’s legs. Her ears are stuffed with dead ants and a slug, a worm is wedged in her nose and a plastic butterfly is left in place of her tongue.
The sight makes Bethany’s skin crawl.
The next day another body is discovered. The victim has suffered the same gruesome fate. Left for dead at the bottom of his garden where the creepy-crawlies can get to him.
Two down. Two to go.
The clock is ticking for Detective Bethany Smith and her team.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2019
437 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Emmy Ellis
136 books115 followersAuthor of these series:
• DI Tracy Collier
• DI Carol Wren
• DI Bethany Smith
• DI Helena Stratton
• The Cardigan Estate
• DI Morgan Yeoman
• Detective Anna James
• DI Tracy Collier
• DI Carol Wren
• DI Bethany Smith
• DI Helena Stratton
• The Cardigan Estate
• DI Morgan Yeoman
• Detective Anna James
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
December 9, 2023
Well that was equally as unimaginative as the first book in the series. I seriously cannot understand why or how the average ratings score for this book is 4.41 stars. Really!? Are we reading the same book? Because after finishing the previous book, I rounded up what I felt to be a 2.5 star book to 3 stars, largely because of the pace, but also to be generous with - what I hoped was - the somewhat fumbled initial introduction into a new series. But this time around I'm just whacking a straightforward 2 star rating on this instalment.
As with book one, there is no mystery or suspense, because you're told who the killer is right from the get-go, with his motive subsequently explained with zero art or subtlety, in the next couple of chapters. It's the most pedestrian, paint-by-numbers shuffle along, from the first kill to the perp being arrested.
There's nothing to care about. Flat characters abound once again with nothing to make any of them stand out from one another. I don't know much about Bethany other than she works hard to deal with personal upset (wow, how original, a workaholic female detective character...yawn) and likes pie & chips. Her partner? I can't even remember his name after 2 books. He's THAT dull. The rest of the team are interchangeable names I also cannot recall (except for Presley, who got his name because his mother was a huge Elvis fan) and whenever they're mentioned or present in a scene, I can't tell who's who. And I'm very much used to reading books with huge casts of characters I need to be able to keep track of. These aren't characters though. They're just vague facsimiles of roles needed to make up the "squad". Too boring for me to even attempt to keep track of the names and jobs they do.
Once again, the author has mistaken the injection of slightly gory or icky details into her dull catalogue of events, for plot, intrigue or good writing. I've read plenty of books that do a great job of creating a sense of revulsion or creeping unease as the story moves along. Emmy Ellis even fails with the shock factor. Nothing in this book shocked or surprised me. And why would it? The entire premise is explained right at the start, so all you have to do is blithely turn the pages, pay very little attention to the writing, and get to the denouement as soon as possible.
Oh and the author or the publisher lied. On the cover it says that there is a big twist at the end. There. Is. No. Twist. Ellis does not possess the writing chops needed to use both foreshadowing and the delicate dropping of breadcrumbs throughout her book, in order to set up the necessary plot progression required to make a twist:
a/ appear to come out of nowhere and
b/ be believable.
To concur, this book was dull, but mercifully short. I don't normally like a shorter text, but in this case it was a blessed relief for the thing to limp on toward its vapid, weak conclusion, as soon as possible. I can only imagine that the first two books in this series have been rated so highly because of the waning attention spans of a generation used to TikTok videos and Marvel movies. I do still have the rest of this series downloaded into my Kindle though, and the masochistic part of me wants to push through each one, summoning the enthusiasm and alacrity normally dedicated to cramming for one's exams.
I will of course be sure to leave an entirely honest review on each piffling pile of drivel, in the hope that at least someone is discouraged from giving this author any of their hard earned money.
Wish me luck.
As with book one, there is no mystery or suspense, because you're told who the killer is right from the get-go, with his motive subsequently explained with zero art or subtlety, in the next couple of chapters. It's the most pedestrian, paint-by-numbers shuffle along, from the first kill to the perp being arrested.
There's nothing to care about. Flat characters abound once again with nothing to make any of them stand out from one another. I don't know much about Bethany other than she works hard to deal with personal upset (wow, how original, a workaholic female detective character...yawn) and likes pie & chips. Her partner? I can't even remember his name after 2 books. He's THAT dull. The rest of the team are interchangeable names I also cannot recall (except for Presley, who got his name because his mother was a huge Elvis fan) and whenever they're mentioned or present in a scene, I can't tell who's who. And I'm very much used to reading books with huge casts of characters I need to be able to keep track of. These aren't characters though. They're just vague facsimiles of roles needed to make up the "squad". Too boring for me to even attempt to keep track of the names and jobs they do.
Once again, the author has mistaken the injection of slightly gory or icky details into her dull catalogue of events, for plot, intrigue or good writing. I've read plenty of books that do a great job of creating a sense of revulsion or creeping unease as the story moves along. Emmy Ellis even fails with the shock factor. Nothing in this book shocked or surprised me. And why would it? The entire premise is explained right at the start, so all you have to do is blithely turn the pages, pay very little attention to the writing, and get to the denouement as soon as possible.
Oh and the author or the publisher lied. On the cover it says that there is a big twist at the end. There. Is. No. Twist. Ellis does not possess the writing chops needed to use both foreshadowing and the delicate dropping of breadcrumbs throughout her book, in order to set up the necessary plot progression required to make a twist:
a/ appear to come out of nowhere and
b/ be believable.
To concur, this book was dull, but mercifully short. I don't normally like a shorter text, but in this case it was a blessed relief for the thing to limp on toward its vapid, weak conclusion, as soon as possible. I can only imagine that the first two books in this series have been rated so highly because of the waning attention spans of a generation used to TikTok videos and Marvel movies. I do still have the rest of this series downloaded into my Kindle though, and the masochistic part of me wants to push through each one, summoning the enthusiasm and alacrity normally dedicated to cramming for one's exams.
I will of course be sure to leave an entirely honest review on each piffling pile of drivel, in the hope that at least someone is discouraged from giving this author any of their hard earned money.
Wish me luck.
January 22, 2021
The events in this book occur shortly after those in book one. Reeling from personal tragedy, Beth throws herself into work and faces a bizarre case.
A young woman is found her back garden. Dead, all dressed up and holding a red flower. James, a friend of the deceased woman, keeps remembering his traumatic childhood. All he wants is for someone to say 'sorry' for what he went through.
As is often the case with Emmy's stories, she takes something ordinary like the hoover in book one, or the insects in this story, and manages to produce a bit of a queasy feeling in this reader! That shows the power of her imagination and her ability to produce images in readers heads, with her words.
This is a great investigation, and Beth had my sympathy throughout the book. I've really enjoyed this and book one, so I'm off over to Amazon now to get the third in the series - Red Is The Colour.
A young woman is found her back garden. Dead, all dressed up and holding a red flower. James, a friend of the deceased woman, keeps remembering his traumatic childhood. All he wants is for someone to say 'sorry' for what he went through.
As is often the case with Emmy's stories, she takes something ordinary like the hoover in book one, or the insects in this story, and manages to produce a bit of a queasy feeling in this reader! That shows the power of her imagination and her ability to produce images in readers heads, with her words.
This is a great investigation, and Beth had my sympathy throughout the book. I've really enjoyed this and book one, so I'm off over to Amazon now to get the third in the series - Red Is The Colour.
January 7, 2025
Action packed, great pacing.. likable characters. Good read 👍
August 1, 2019
Wow, Emmy has done it again. She has a knack of creating twisted characters.
A page-turning read that delves into the mind of a killer. The flashbacks to the killer’s childhood are often thought-provoking and pitiful.
A great read and one I would highly recommend.
January 27, 2024
A Real Page Turner
DI Bethany Smith goes straight from her husbands funeral to reports of a dead body in a garden. She is supposed to be on leave but would rather work. A young woman has been murdered and her body posed in her own garden but why. When another body is found posed in and it is discovered they were in the same friendship group, Bethany starts to look at the group of friends, but are they really friends? Although we knew early on, who the killer was, it did not detract from the story. We gradually learned more about the killer and why they did what they did. I really like this series and look forward to reading more.
DI Bethany Smith goes straight from her husbands funeral to reports of a dead body in a garden. She is supposed to be on leave but would rather work. A young woman has been murdered and her body posed in her own garden but why. When another body is found posed in and it is discovered they were in the same friendship group, Bethany starts to look at the group of friends, but are they really friends? Although we knew early on, who the killer was, it did not detract from the story. We gradually learned more about the killer and why they did what they did. I really like this series and look forward to reading more.
March 25, 2024
This book was wonderful in several aspects.
While the characters weren't super well developed, they acted in (mostly) completely understandable ways.
The main villain's actions were a bit over the top, but having been in similar (but not as bad) circumstances I can understand the long-standing hurt, anger, and desire for a sincere apology.
I liked the several character viewpoints.
Finally, this novel has one of the best expressions of grief that I've ever read. I'm too lazy to type the entire paragraph, but it begins:
"A lonely bed. Alonely house. Lonely heart. Lonely every damn thing."
While the characters weren't super well developed, they acted in (mostly) completely understandable ways.
The main villain's actions were a bit over the top, but having been in similar (but not as bad) circumstances I can understand the long-standing hurt, anger, and desire for a sincere apology.
I liked the several character viewpoints.
Finally, this novel has one of the best expressions of grief that I've ever read. I'm too lazy to type the entire paragraph, but it begins:
"A lonely bed. Alonely house. Lonely heart. Lonely every damn thing."
August 29, 2024
Erm... I had to read this one during daylight hours !!!!!
I should have realised with the title !!! But I was in a rush, as usual, to get to the next book...
A couple of pages in, I realised my mistake, and came off kindle instantly. It was 9pm. NOT the right time to read about things that give me nightmares...
Daylight reading only...
But, what a brilliant read !! Loved it, even if I did close my eyes during certain places..
And I'm supposed to be a grown up !!!!
Clever. Thoughtful. And I'm now going to start the next in the series🤗🤗
Thank you Emmy Ellis, you are very very good author xxx
I should have realised with the title !!! But I was in a rush, as usual, to get to the next book...
A couple of pages in, I realised my mistake, and came off kindle instantly. It was 9pm. NOT the right time to read about things that give me nightmares...
Daylight reading only...
But, what a brilliant read !! Loved it, even if I did close my eyes during certain places..
And I'm supposed to be a grown up !!!!
Clever. Thoughtful. And I'm now going to start the next in the series🤗🤗
Thank you Emmy Ellis, you are very very good author xxx
September 12, 2020
A respectable 4.5* to be honest. I just had a little niggle with something near the end (trivial). Devoured in a day, it is not a long book, plus it was an exciting read. I'm liking Bethany Smith and she has a great partner.....friends eh? Seems that way at the moment. Oh yeah, the story, well let's just say if you have a fear of creepy crawlies and maybe don't pay enough attention to your...oops, nearly a spoiler there! Looking forward to book three.
March 12, 2022
Sad story!
This was an original story, with lots of twists and turns thrown in. Again, we knew who the suspect was from the beginning, and got to follow him in each scenario. Still getting to know the main characters, and they got a visit from an old friend from another one of the authors series, which was good. The book is well written, and you can feel the emotion from Bethany throughout the book. Goo read!
This was an original story, with lots of twists and turns thrown in. Again, we knew who the suspect was from the beginning, and got to follow him in each scenario. Still getting to know the main characters, and they got a visit from an old friend from another one of the authors series, which was good. The book is well written, and you can feel the emotion from Bethany throughout the book. Goo read!
July 7, 2020
Book Two with DI Bethany Smith and as twisted as Book One. I am beginning to understand Emmy’s style of writing, with clues of the killer’s childhood linking to the murders. It’s very descriptive and you can actually visualise the setting of the murders. I don’t want to give too much away, but, sorry seems to be the hardest word....
July 13, 2020
DI Bethany Smith & her partner Mike are faced solving a crippling continuous roll of murders set in a residential area. This is a intense page turning read that holds the reader captive. Thank you Emmy Ellis.
Read
December 6, 2020Obvious
So I read the first in the series and then this. I found it tedious and obvious from the beginning. First of all, she tells you who is guilty and then the clues are so obvious it’s hard to believe a child couldn’t figure it out.
So I read the first in the series and then this. I found it tedious and obvious from the beginning. First of all, she tells you who is guilty and then the clues are so obvious it’s hard to believe a child couldn’t figure it out.
January 2, 2022
This is the 2nd book in the Bethany Smith series and we see her grieving the untimely death of her husband.
In this book again we see how an abusive childhood can break a person and lead them to commit murder. When reading about the abuse our hearts as readers feel the terror of the abuse.
In this book again we see how an abusive childhood can break a person and lead them to commit murder. When reading about the abuse our hearts as readers feel the terror of the abuse.
January 5, 2024
Enjoyable
Good characters,nice plot,one plot troubled soul enjoyed reading this book not grim like some I really enjoyed reading this book will look forward to reading more books by this auther
Good characters,nice plot,one plot troubled soul enjoyed reading this book not grim like some I really enjoyed reading this book will look forward to reading more books by this auther
February 7, 2024
The 2nd book I've read in this series and this 1 made me shudder with how graphic the description was, but I wanted to read on and find out what happened next. Will definitely continue to read this series of books.
April 26, 2020
Yet again another amazingly twisted book by this author. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
May 23, 2020
Really getting into these 'we know who did it, but love seeing how the police put all the pieces together' books. Emmy has a super creepy imagination and I just love it (and her!)
August 10, 2020
Easy read
I read this book in one go its an easy read although I had to skim past some of the shed bits.
I read this book in one go its an easy read although I had to skim past some of the shed bits.
October 7, 2020
Childhood trauma and it's results...
January 18, 2022
Yes! Another great read from Emmy. Good plot, some squeamish bits but just the right amount of thrill.
October 20, 2023
Absolutely brilliant!
This was another amazing story of DI Smith 👌 I always enjoy starting a new book at night before sleep and this one didn't let me down! 🙏
This was another amazing story of DI Smith 👌 I always enjoy starting a new book at night before sleep and this one didn't let me down! 🙏
November 5, 2023
Excellent
Very well written. Grips you from the first word till the last. You will love the main characters and will laugh and cry with them.
Very well written. Grips you from the first word till the last. You will love the main characters and will laugh and cry with them.
December 7, 2023
Great crime story
Amazing story that continues to surprise to the last page.Very unusual murders that keep you guessing to the very last page.
Amazing story that continues to surprise to the last page.Very unusual murders that keep you guessing to the very last page.
Read
February 28, 2024DNF stopped caring
March 31, 2024
Great Read
This book was very thrilling from beginning to end. It had a lot of intense moments throughout. I highly recommend reading to all mystery fans!
This book was very thrilling from beginning to end. It had a lot of intense moments throughout. I highly recommend reading to all mystery fans!
May 23, 2024
I am so glad that I discovered Emmy Ellis's books, she write's a brilliant murder story with great characters, and the story's flow so make's them a pleasure to read.
October 11, 2024
Weird reason to kill ya mates but ok
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2026
Didn’t find this story as good as the first book.
February 2, 2020
Wow this book picks up same day as her first book ended. It had a lot of great scenes and you really get to see bethany.
I really do enjoy this character but even me I feel bad for her and she doesn't seem to want time to grieve for her lost husband.
The story was great and it seems like a pull from my past as well. I was bullied and laughed at all my life. It would be easy to go through and try and get revenge for past slights but I am more secure in my abilities. This is really a revenge story all for some smaller issues.
This book was wonderful but can be hard to deal with as well. It is hard as it reminds me of my past. If you were bullied or laughed at this might not be a great book for you.
I really do enjoy this character but even me I feel bad for her and she doesn't seem to want time to grieve for her lost husband.
The story was great and it seems like a pull from my past as well. I was bullied and laughed at all my life. It would be easy to go through and try and get revenge for past slights but I am more secure in my abilities. This is really a revenge story all for some smaller issues.
This book was wonderful but can be hard to deal with as well. It is hard as it reminds me of my past. If you were bullied or laughed at this might not be a great book for you.
August 4, 2019
This is shaping up to be a fantastic series.
Bethany and Mike are called out to a body posed at the bottom of her garden, with all sorts of creepy crawlies placed in some of her orifices. It’s not long before there are more bodies being found, Bethany and Mike are struggling to find any reason for their deaths.
A great storyline, I devoured this book. Emmy Ellis comes up with some interesting scenarios for the murders in her books. I like the relationship between Bethany and Mike, due to the tough time she is going through, he looks after her and makes sure he is there for her. He’s like a brother as well as her work partner and it’s great to see the interaction between them.
I recommend this book as well as the series.
Bethany and Mike are called out to a body posed at the bottom of her garden, with all sorts of creepy crawlies placed in some of her orifices. It’s not long before there are more bodies being found, Bethany and Mike are struggling to find any reason for their deaths.
A great storyline, I devoured this book. Emmy Ellis comes up with some interesting scenarios for the murders in her books. I like the relationship between Bethany and Mike, due to the tough time she is going through, he looks after her and makes sure he is there for her. He’s like a brother as well as her work partner and it’s great to see the interaction between them.
I recommend this book as well as the series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews