Daily Archives: August 1, 2015

“The Red Book of Primrose House” is the second in the series of Potting Shed mysteries by Marty Wingate. I must admit I much preferred the first book. There is a bit of a sophmore slump in this second book.

Our sleuth, Pru Parke has finally gotten the job she needs in order to stay in England. She is a recent transplant from Texas and had given herself a year to settle in and find a job. The only drawback to the job is that it puts her at a distance from her new boyfriend, a detective in London that she met in the first book in this series.

Pru seems to have rather quickly adopted the lingo of her adopted country as well as their habits. To tell the truth, this is one of the things I object to in this story. I think it would be much better to have Pru speak in her Texas “voice” and have her habits contrast with that of those around her. I worked with many British individuals and was told that they generally have a lot of disdain for expats who come across too native too soon. They can tell that it is not natural and they simply don’t like it. At one point in the story, Pru hides the fact that she is making iced tea because it is too different from what her friends would do.

Pru has turned on the waterworks in this story. She has become a crier and is frankly too dependent on her boyfriend. I like a stronger woman in my mysteries and hope that the author firms up Pru’s backbone in the future. She is also acting fairly young for a woman in her fifties. One would think that time and experience would have given her a more resolute spirit.

Apart from that, it was a decent cozy mystery. The whodunnit was not too difficult to figure out and from that point on, waiting for Pru to come up with the answer was about two thirds of the book. Perhaps that is why some of the character issues became more prominent to me. All I was relying on at that point was the charm of the story and some of it lost its charm pretty quickly.

The book ends a little strangely from my point of view. Hopefully, it will make more sense in the follow on book in this series. I also hope that Pru grows up, grows a backbone, and starts acting her age and her own person.