Mulch Ado About Nothing

Jane Jeffry #12

by Jill Churchill

Suburban mom Jane Jeffry and her equally green-thumbless best friend Shelley Nowack could kill plastic plants. But their scheme to improve themselves vegetatively dies on the vine when the celebrated botanist slated to teach a class at the local Community Center is mysteriously beaten into a coma -- and her replacement turns out to be Dr. Stewart Eastman, an arrogant, self-promoting boor. Did Dr. Eastman or a fellow classmate assault their original instructor? And who later plants a corpse in Eastman's compost heap? There's certainly an abundant crop of suspects. And it's up to Jane to weed out a killer.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Adult, Humor, Mystery Thriller

223 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

A pseudonym used by Janice Young Brooks.

Jill Churchill, winner of the Agatha and Macavity Mystery Readers Awards, and nominated for an Anthony for her best-selling Jane Jeffry series, lives as Jane does, in a midwestern suburb. On purpose! She says writing this series and the Grace and Favor series is the best treat she can have without a knife and fork.

Under her real name, Janice Young Brooks, and various pseudonyms, she's written historical novels, a gothic novel, and a history textbook as well as many articles for newspapers and magazines. When she's not writing, she's avidly doing genealogy which she says is a lot like mysteries with all the red herrings, clues, speculations, and surprises.

She gardens enthusiastically, needlepoints superbly, and plays a mean game of gin against the computer. She has a son and daughter and two granddaughters, Rose Louise and Emma. Janice is currently in a battle of supremacy with her cat Max.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cozy American cozy! Mystery. The 2 main characters could be your friends. The mystery is straight forward and clear as is the solution. The surrounding cast of characters are entertaining to the story and believable! I enjoyed it and it was a quick easy breeze to read

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book in this series so far has been an utter delight. Love the humor and the relationships, especially Jane and her best friend Shelly who are funny, smart, and who keep each other sane with kids, carpools, and all the insanity of suburban life.

[Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just a few weeks short of lounging on my hard drive for 15 years. It frankly leaves me baffled and a bit appalled that I would neglect this series for so many years. Granted, I get it, better late than never, but 15 years?

This series is one of the best parts of my reading landscape. I’ve enjoyed every book. They are short, concise, and filled with a kind of decency, innocence, and good feeling I don’t often get from newly published stuff.

Jane Jeffry is a single mom raising three kids, two cats, and a dog. By book 12, Mike is working his way through college. He’s working at a nursery not far from the family’s suburban Chicago home.

Jane and her friend, Shelley, have lived next door to one another for 20 years, and as you read this, you’ll see what a treasured friendship they have.

Jane manages somehow to break a foot as the book opens, and she’s dealing with a cast and crutches. That’s not a hugely integral part of the mystery, but again, it adds to the warmth and ambiance of the series.

It’s summer, and Jane and Shelley agree to take a gardening class near their home. The woman who was supposed to teach it can’t. Someone beat her into a coma. Her replacement is a pompous self-promoter from home attendees learn little. Before the book ends, the pompous instructor will die, and they’ll find him buried in his own compost heap.

This is a fun cozy because of the supporting characters. You love the glimpses you get of Jane’s kids, and the other members of the class are memorable indeed because of their respective oddities.

[KathyNV · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great little cozy mystery! Two best friends get way more than they bargained for when they attend an Adult education botany class. Jane and Shelley are warm, funny and stick their noses into everything. Their classmates add to the fun as they move through mysterious deliveries, sprained ankles, kids, murder and gossip galore! The pressure though really ratchets up when the class starts to tour each other’s gardens. Delicious fun and surprises make this cozy mystery lots of fun!

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet and to the point!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good light mystery with the sleuths being best friends who live next door to each other. The mystery did wrap up very quickly at the end - wished for a little more meat but otherwise enjoyable.

[Dawn Gribble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, quick read.

[Cathie Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun murder mystery to read. Love the characters. They remind me of the southern sisters who solve crime. Plot and storyline was interesting, though it did come to a abrupt end. Not a lot of suspense, but it was a fun read. Highly recommend.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even see that one coming!

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

3- stars

[Mark Chrasta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found myself constantly rolling my eyes at the pretentious Jane and her next door neighbor. It was like reading a really bad 80s sitcom script: predictable and completely unrealistic.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

""

[Saadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, yes, it is just a week out of a suburban mom's life. She gets a cast at the beginning and clumps about through the story. Nothing too gory or gripping, yet the pace is quick, witty and realistic. Just an imaginative woman wondering about a mystery then a death and building theories with her guy-friend, the police investigator.

I kept wondering how Jane could afford to live, as she obviously did not have a job and spent all her time with her neighbor and best friend. Finally I found out on page 175 that she was widowed and a few pages later that she received a healthy income from the dead husband's family business.

The gardening tours were fun. What I found most interesting were the cast of nutty characters - how did the author create them? They were so detailed and life-like, and yet so unlikeable! And the descriptions of the gardens reflected much of the owners' personalities, which was a dead-on observation, very depressing in a way. All very likely suspicious characters but without motive.

Finally, the culprit is identified, and he happens to have genuine kind feelings in him. Yet it is his obsession about his dead wife which has driven him to unnatural actions.

I liked the way the author managed to give the characters multi-dimensional aspects and expound on that fact in several places. Jane muses about what makes the people tick and what other unknown aspects they might have in their lives. Shelly takes time to talk to Kipsy, a freakish looking young woman, asking her about her motivation for her looks.

Interesting vignette about the vagaries of human nature. The author's writing style is short, breezy and a little tongue-in-cheek (having young adults in the house is a good mix to stay real!). It is well done for its particular niche. I enjoyed it! I am glad to have this style of everyday pedestrian mystery without a deranged serial killer and predator out to kidnap, torture and mutilate innocent victims.

[Bm · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never could really relate to Jane, the main character, with her bickering relationship with her next door neighbor/best friend. The other characters were very different both from people I know and from each other. Jane was so involved with her own problems of a broken foot and teenagers off for the summer to really get to know these other characters who figure into the suspect list.
Jane and her friend have enrolled in a gardening class out of boredom as neither is much interested in gardening. The instructor is attacked in her home and left in a coma.
Dr. Eastman, an egotistical man, steps in to teach the class. He had no idea what the class was about but gave it a good try. He ends up dead.
Jane rambles through the clues seeking the culprit.
It is a relaxing easy read cozy mystery. Look carefully at the title's play on Shakespeare. It does rate a 3.5 from me as I did enjoy reading the book even if I didn't really relate to it. Readers of cozy mysteries would also find it a fun read.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane jeffries has flowers delivered to her by mistake. She and her friend, Shelley, take the flowers to the person they were intended for and come upon a crime scene. Julie Jackson, a local microbiologist, has been attacked in her home and is in a coma. Jane takes a fall and breaks a bone in her foot. She is placed in a cast and is learning to manipulate crutches. She and Shelley attend the class on beginning botany that Ms. Jackson was going to teach at the local community college. They meet the substitute instructor, Stewart Eastman, who seems to be more interested in his own achievements than teaching beginners. Jane tries to find out if the attacker is a member of the class; a conspiracy theorist, a lonely widower who can't let his wife's spirit go, or any of the others. I like this series. Jane is likable but not a ditzy heroine. She is nosy but still thinks about what she is doing. A good read.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...

1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.

2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.

3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.

4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.

5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jane Jeffry mystery. Single mother Jane and her friend Natalie again find themselves mixed up with an assault and murder investigation. This time, Jane and Natalie sign up for a community gardening class to see if they can learn anything which would help them develop gardens in their yards. The slated instructor for the classes is assaulted prior to the class so is unable to do the sessions. Her replacement turns up dead after a couple of sessions and Jane and Natalie try to unravel what happened, by whom, and why.

The series tends to be on the lighter side with humor resulting from Jane's behavior and actions.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of suburban housewives decide to join a gardening class, only to find that their neighbor who was to lead the class was attacked in her home and is now in the hospital. The substitute, another, although part time resident of their neighborhood takes over the class and nearly bores everyone to death, although that was not the cause of the murder that takes place. Jane Jeffry and Shelley Nowack are amateur sleuths who set out solve the case in spite of Jane's broken foot (which she cleverly attributes to various high adventure escapades rather than the mundane slipping off the curb).

[Marti · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a nice mild mystery--no blood and gore, or lurking villains. Jane Jeffry and her friend Shelley Nowack are not gardeners, but they take a gardening course even though they know nothing about it, and get the garden center to make them instant gardens, since the class is traveling around to view each other's efforts. The original teacher gets badly coshed before class starts and evil befalls another of the group. Not only that, but Jane has badly injured her foot during a curb accident, and has to get used to crutches. Teenagers add another light touch.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually enjoy Jill Churchill, but I found this one to be one of her weakest books. For one thing, she's already used the community school idea in her book, A Quiche Before Dying, and with much better results. You'd think they would ban her from the school after that one! Maybe it was because her strong secondary characters were barely mentioned in this one. What's up with Mel? What about her kids and mother-in-law? Check it out from the library or borrow it from a friend before you buy it.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book that I read for my last book report. It was a good story about two mothers (Jane and Shelley) who get themselves in the middle of a mystery. The woman who is supposed to be teaching the summer botany class that Jane and Shelley are signed up for, is suddenly beaten into a coma. Throughout the book Jane's friend Mel (a detective) is working on solving the case. I was pretty suprised about how the book turned out in the end when they find out who did it!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cast Of Characters
Jane Jeffry - heroine

Shelley Nowack - best friend

Mel - Cop and Jane's Boyfriend

Stefan Eckert - Director Arts and Crafts

Julie Jackson - teacher

Geneva Jackson Julie's sister

Dr. Stewart Eastman - fll-in teacher

Ursla Appledorn - classmate

Miss Martha Winstead - classmate

Charles Jones - classmate, Martha's neighbor

Arnold Waring - classmate

Katie JJ daughter
Mike JJ son

Good story about a gardening class gone awry.

[Doug Morelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jane Jeffry series is solid, sometimes funny, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, most often light-hearted, not particularly suspenseful, usually a little quirky -- just clean fun, pleasurable reading. Generally believable characters. Stays away from crude language. This particular book is no exception. Enjoyable, fairly fast read. Each book can stand on its own, but I recommend the whole series.

[Rebekkila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first Berkeley Prime Mystery I have enjoyed. I think a lot of it has to do with the gardening. Even though I left the climate that the book takes place in, I found the gardening ideas interesting. The mystery itself plodded along at a slow pace and I will admit I skipped 20 pages to get to the last ten. I was ready for the book to end.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jane Jeffry mystery. Jane and friend/neighbour Shelley decide to go on a botany course. Before even attending the instructor is badly beaten and is in a coma. The replacement professor is boring and the other attendees are of more interest to Jane and Shelley. When a second body is found, the whole class comes under suspicion.
Gives some great gardening tips. Interesting mystery.

[Kyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane and Shelley take a botany class in an effort to quit having black thumbs. Instead they find a body in compost. I don't know why the local police don't just follow these two around 24/7 to solve all their cases. Actually, this one was pretty good, more on par with her first few books.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane and Shelley take a garden class. The instructor gets murdered before the class begins. The substitute instructor then gets murdered. Jane and Shelley are trying to solve the murder.

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Quick, very light mystery I read while waiting for library books to come in. OK for mindless read, but nothing special about it.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent quick read