The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening

A book review of sorts

First of all, I picked this book up based on the title. It’s a delightfully fun title, I was looking for light cozy reading, and this fills the bill. The Retired Assassin’s Guide to County Gardening is fan fiction for John Wick, with the serial numbers filed down sufficiently, and a bit of Mrs. Pollifax, and a soupçon of ghosts. Set in New Zealand, our titular retired assassin finds that his background isn’t nearly as much of a secret as he’d hoped. He also discovers that his new home comes with a gardener and…

It’s a fun little romp. Don’t look at it too hard, and don’t let the author’s description of the center of a croissant as ‘mushy’ get to you. Assume she’s done her research and there are enough chill hours in her setting for heirloom (heritage) apples, and let yourself drift through the plot which isn’t so much a mystery in the whodunnit sense as it is in the sense of the assassin failing to keep his pledge and killing… will he? Won’t he?

There promises to be a sequel, but not for some months. I do plan on picking it up when it comes out, and hopefully I’ll remember.

In the meantime, speaking of cozy mysteries and ghosts¹ I highly recommend Charlotte McLeod’s The Fat Lady’s Ghost. Superlatively written as all her books are, with the wit and wordplay you’d expect, this one is just such a fun romp. Billed on Amazon as YA, it is not, although the young lady in the main character is young, she is not a child, and would resent being treated as one. I suspect having read this, and listening to Ian’s stories about derp kitties (Cheetahs) is what inspired me to write a certain cat into The Groundskeeper: Deadhead.

Regardless, if you are looking for an entertaining and heart-warming read with a little satisfying romance you can never go wrong with Charlotte McLeod, and this is become one of my favorites of her books.

Happy Reading!

1. I’m not generally a fan of mixing up my mysteries and fantasies, but these two books are really fun despite the supernatural and yes, I know I write cozy fantasy with mysteries in them. I can’t have to make sense all of the time, must I?