A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber is the first book in the NEW “Fairy Garden” cozy mystery series. Publisher: Kensington Books, coming June 30, 2020.

Fairy garden store owner Courtney Kelly believes in inviting magic into your life. But when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . .

Since childhood, Courtney has loved fairies. After her mother died when Courtney was ten, she lost touch with that feeling of magic. A year ago, at age twenty-nine, she rediscovered it when she left her father’s landscaping business to spread her wings and start a fairy garden business and teashop in beautiful Carmel, California. At Open Your Imagination, she teaches garden design and sells everything from fairy figurines to tinkling wind chimes. Now she’s starting a book club tea.

But the light of the magical world she’s created inside her shop is darkened one night when she discovers neighboring dog-grooming business owner Mick Watkins dead beside her patio fountain. To make matters worse, the police suspect Courtney of the crime. To clear her name and find the real killer, Courtney will have to wing it. But she’s about to get a little help from an unexpected source . . .

Recipes included

Purchase Link

Dru’s Musing:
As I’m familiar with Ms. Gerber’s work, I was delighted to see another new series from her. This is a light and engaging whodunit with a tightly woven multi-plot story-line that immediately grabbed my attention. The writing style leads to a comfortable tone and is easy to follow along with what the author has intended. We meet a bevy of characters starting with Courtney, Joss, Fiona and the others who some become suspects in the murder investigation. Little by little, the author paints the story and it was fun to watch it all play out with clues that were drizzled throughout. The author also set the stage giving us enough of the character’s backstory, that was easy to narrow the field of suspects the closer we got to the end. I love how everyone had a pivotal role in that led to the revelation of the killer’s motive and identity. This is another fantastic entre in the cozy mystery genre and I look forward to more exciting and enchanted adventures with Courtney and her friends.

**********
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.