Petals and Poison: A Garden Gate Mystery 1
H.E. Harper
Reader Reviews
5.0
1 rating
Karen B.
Feb 25, 2026
Petals and Poison - A Garden Gate Mystery
- H.E. Harper
Petals and poison is a contemporary cozy mystery with a bit of psychological thriller shoveled in just for good measure to make the story really bloom!
Harper utilizes the preface to cultivate a solid back story on how Lily came to live with her aunt Flora at the age of nine upon the death of her parents. With this, Lily had to learn to overcome her grief, allow healing with the guidance of her aunt through her newfound love of all things that grow, open her heart to new friends with finding Martha (best friend) and growth by going to college to earn her botany degree. Along with a few other surprises all in just those first dozen or so pages preparing us for a thrill ride into the mysteries surrounding The Garden Gate.
After that, you have another 300’sh pages FULL of gripping, thrilling, page turning adventure that left me unable to put the book down because I just HAD to know what was going to happen. I literally read this book in about 3 1/2 hours (between interruptions of my dogs thinking they needed outside to bark at the sounds of night in the country) and tried to put it down a couple times to go to bed and finally gave up and pushed on to finish it and was so glad I did.
From one chapter to the next I was changing my mind on who did it and how and why Lily was in their sights. By about 75% in I was hot on the trail of who the murderer was but boy howdy I did NOT expect the HOW.
Harper does an amazing job with digging up emotions all across the garden in this one - there is trauma/loss, heartache, love, murder, twists, mystery, detective work, and do I sense a hint of a love story developing Ms. Harper?
I foresee a bright future for The Garden Gate community and Lily Gardner, as well as H.E. Harper and look forward to being a part of its growth!
Thank you H.E. Harper for allowing me to be an ARC reader and receive an advance copy of the book. As always, all opinions and reviews are of my own volition. I have not been promised any compensation by the author, present or future, for my review.
- H.E. Harper
Petals and poison is a contemporary cozy mystery with a bit of psychological thriller shoveled in just for good measure to make the story really bloom!
Harper utilizes the preface to cultivate a solid back story on how Lily came to live with her aunt Flora at the age of nine upon the death of her parents. With this, Lily had to learn to overcome her grief, allow healing with the guidance of her aunt through her newfound love of all things that grow, open her heart to new friends with finding Martha (best friend) and growth by going to college to earn her botany degree. Along with a few other surprises all in just those first dozen or so pages preparing us for a thrill ride into the mysteries surrounding The Garden Gate.
After that, you have another 300’sh pages FULL of gripping, thrilling, page turning adventure that left me unable to put the book down because I just HAD to know what was going to happen. I literally read this book in about 3 1/2 hours (between interruptions of my dogs thinking they needed outside to bark at the sounds of night in the country) and tried to put it down a couple times to go to bed and finally gave up and pushed on to finish it and was so glad I did.
From one chapter to the next I was changing my mind on who did it and how and why Lily was in their sights. By about 75% in I was hot on the trail of who the murderer was but boy howdy I did NOT expect the HOW.
Harper does an amazing job with digging up emotions all across the garden in this one - there is trauma/loss, heartache, love, murder, twists, mystery, detective work, and do I sense a hint of a love story developing Ms. Harper?
I foresee a bright future for The Garden Gate community and Lily Gardner, as well as H.E. Harper and look forward to being a part of its growth!
Thank you H.E. Harper for allowing me to be an ARC reader and receive an advance copy of the book. As always, all opinions and reviews are of my own volition. I have not been promised any compensation by the author, present or future, for my review.