The Body in the Garden: A Lily Adler Mystery

Written by Katharine Schellman

Narrated by Henrietta Meire

After witnessing a murder and its cover up, newly widowed Lily Adler sets out to uncover the truth with the help of two unlikely companions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: May 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781666550993

Katharine Schellman

KATHARINE SCHELLMAN is a former actor and one-time political consultant. When not writing about mystery, history, and other improbable things, she can be found in her garden or finding new ways to skip steps while baking. She currently lives and writes in the mountains of Virginia in the company of her family and the many houseplants she keeps accidentally murdering. Her books include Last Call at the Nightingale and The Last Drop of Hemlock.

Reviews for The Body in the Garden

[Teri Wise · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was very enjoyable. The characters were interesting and it had a plot twist at the end. The narrator did a nice job.

[prairiemachineworks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good book. Good mystery. Likeable characters who all had personalities.

[Andrea Stith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a cute read. It was pleasant enough, and the mystery kept the suspense up a bit. I, however, struggled to really be invested in the case completely. I am not sure if it was the impersonal nature of the motives that made it feel like it was moving so slow or just that I didn't completely connect with the cast of characters.

I will likely continue the series at some point and hope I feel more invested in their lives in the future. I wonder if they all wrap up so clean and tidy in the ends as this. This is a good palette cleanser between heavy reads if I were to recommend this to others.

[Tessa Schlechtriem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining. A little predictable but not so much as to be annoying.

[Darcia Helle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Body in the Garden is an entertaining historical mystery.

My favorite part was the atmosphere and setting. The author does an excellent job of capturing life in England during the early 1800s. We see the entitlement of upper class society, as well as the restrictions and expectations placed on women.

I’m neutral on Lily’s character. She could be snooty and abrasive at times, but her personality fits well with her push to step out of society’s bounds and solve a murder.

We’re introduced to a whole lot of characters, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep them all straight. Getting to know them is part of solving the murder along with Lily, though this makes for a slow pace.

The narration is good, with a slower pace matching the feel of the book. I thought Henrietta Meire did a great job embodying Lily’s personality.

[Morris-Ken · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great book and I enjoyed the characters.

[PamelaJoyceSilva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story with strong characters and great plot plus great narrator!

[Lillie Sperry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I could not finish this book. The banter between the two main characters was not well balanced. I believe the author meant the banter between the two to be playful, but I found it to be annoying since they seemed to be at each other’s throats all the time.

[Heidi Cantrell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The plot and writing may be ok in themselves, but the narrator completely destroyed this for me. Goodness. The entire book war read in a breathless, choppy, almost teary voice. It about drove me to distraction. I cannot stand the thought of listening to that again for the next books in the series.

[Sarah Moody · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story, but I do wish it had a better narrator.

[Patricia Strickland · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great fun and very well witten. I hope there will be many more. While I wouldn't expect flawless Regency language throughout, it would be wonderful if an English editor could weed out the obvious Americanisms which grate on the ears of us Brits. Jane Austen didn't use the word "gotten" for example! But still a classy, intelligent take on the historical mystery genre.

[julie47 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I couldn’t listen to it. The storyline seemed very good and I could have listened to it and probably all it’s sequels but for the robotic narrator. I am not saying that I could do any better , but it almost sounds like an artificial intelligence robot just reading and stopping at every period as if it has hit a wall a little hard.

Just couldn’t continue to listen that. IMO I believe the narrator should learn to flowwwww from one sentence to the next instead of stopping as if she has hit that wall. Not trying to hurt her feelings just trying to give a bit of constructive advice

Okay , well that is my 2 cents anyway.

[Stefanie Siaperas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s a great story in one of my favorite genres, historical mysteries. It took a couple chapters to get used to the narrator, but after I did I found myself enjoying her style. I will say that I’m not sure why the author choose to name 3 characters with names that all start with Har…Hartley, Harlow and Harper. Nonetheless it was a great listen.