Genre: Cosy Mystery
LGBTQ+ Category: Asexual
Reviewer: Xanthe, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Meet Motts and the quirky cast of characters in her world. Poisoned Primrose is a quintessential cosy British mystery and an all-round fun story to throw yourself into.
Autistic, asexual, and almost forty, Pineapple “Motts” Mottley flees London with her cat and turtle to a quaint cottage in Cornwall. She craves the peace of life in a small village. The dead body buried in her garden isn’t quite what she had in mind, though.
Unable to resist her curiosity, she falls directly into a mess of trouble and runs head-first into the attractive detective inspector, Teo Herceg. She tries to balance her business with the investigation, but as the killer focuses on her, staying alive becomes trickier than advanced origami.
Will Motts survive the onslaught of murderously bad luck?
Can she solve the mystery before it all spins out of control and off a cliff?
The Review
Poisoned Primrose is the first book in a new cozy mystery series from Dahlia Donovan.
Pineapple “Motts” Mottley has moved down to a small town in Cornwall where she has extended family and friends after having enough of living in London, hoping to live a quieter life with her cat and tortoise. Things don’t quite go to plan when a body is discovered in her garden….
Motts is such a wonderful character to get to know. She may have autism but that’s not the only thing about her. I loved reading how she goes about daily life, talking to her cat and having such close friendships with Vina, Nish and River. Even though she’s moved to a new community she’s definitely not alone and has quite the support network, clearly loved by many though she does struggle with her parents on the odd occasion that they do visit.
The mystery part of the story was fairly low key though there are a couple of moments that have Motts in danger. It has you wondering along with her as there are several viable suspects and Motts has to question things at least a little bit as her autism doesn’t let her leave questions unasked, even if you don’t get a friendly response. What this case has brought her is Teo, the lovely Detective Inspector from the Cold Case Unit. He seems to innately know how to help Motts to feel comfortable in any situation but especially when things start stressing her and bring her out of her comfort zone, moments that aren’t surprising considering what goes on. I’m hoping that brings some happiness for Motts in the series. It’s so great getting to read an Ace character and she’s very upfront with people about it. She’s totally endearing and I found myself warming to her very quickly.
Motts has quite the eventful first month or two after moving to the cottage and it’s filled with both highs and lows. Relationship developments with family, friends and new acquaintances bring her both peace and tension. The murder mystery is rather low key. I felt that this wasn’t the main part of the story, just an element to it. Mainly, we get to know Motts as she comes to live in this new place and she has to get used to new people and a new daily way of living.
I really enjoyed this first book and am interested to see in how the series moves forwards with both plot and character relationships. Definitely a recommended read for those who like a story that’s easy to fall into and love an endearing and quirky MC.
Four stars.
The Reviewer
Hello all, my name is Xanthe and I am excited to be a reviewer for the PRG.
I read a lot, every night for at least 4-5 hours and I love to get lost in the world that an author has created. The best ones leave you wanting more and at a loss for words to describe just how good it is but I’ll try my best.
I live in a small town in South West England, just me and my dog Bonnie. I work part time in administration and really enjoy my job and the people I work with which I am very aware is not always the case!
I’ll read pretty much any sub genre within the mm genre. Since discovering it a few years ago, I rarely read anything else. One thing I won’t touch is horror, a definite no no for me!
Never ask me what my favourite anything is as I’ll have to give you a list of about ten or twenty things. How am I able to pick one food, book or film out of so many that I love?!
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