Review :: Put Out to Pasture :: Amanda Flower

I love a cosy mystery – I don’t know if it’s the fun tropes, the way things wrap up nicely at the end, the cosy settings with quirky characters, or the adorable covers and punny titles. I’ve read a couple of Amanda Flower’s books before, so jumped at the chance to review her latest Put out to Pasture when I spotted it on NetGalley. Read on for a bit of info about the book, and then some of my thoughts on this one.

What is Amanda Flower’s Put Out to Pasture about?

Shiloh Bellamy has saved her family’s farm from financial ruin—but now what? She’s barely scraping by on the farm’s new organic business model and the fall festival she organized to drum up business comes to a screeching halt when the body of a prominent townswoman is discovered underneath a scarecrow in a nearby field. Worst of all, the evidence points to Shiloh’s childhood best friend, Kristy, as the prime suspect.

Between cooking up delicious treats made with her farm’s produce, convincing her cantankerous father to let her do things her own way, and dealing with a newcomer in town who could be serious competition for her customers, Shiloh doesn’t have time to wade into a murder investigation. But with a killer on the loose and suspicious activity circling closer and closer to Shiloh and the people she loves, she realizes there’s nothing to do but roll up her sleeves and get down to the dirty work of finding the killer and clearing Kristy’s name once and for all.

My review of Put Out to Pasture by Amanda Flower.

I found this one to be a cute and fun read. I enjoyed the farm setting, and the city girl returns home vibes. It had some good red herrings, and I also liked the romantic potential, which I imagine will develop in subsequent books in the series. This is only the second book in the Farm to Table series, so it was quite easy to jump in and get to know the characters. I think the only thing I wasn’t super keen on was that it got a bit repetitive when Shi kept on mentioning her dad’s ‘collection’ (of local memorabilia) – I feel like that detail was repeated every time she mentioned her father.

I tend to judge these sorts of stories a bit by whether I would continue reading the series as new books are released, and I think this one had enough of a bigger arc to intrigue me, and I would pick up the next book to find out what happens next.

Are you a fan of cosy mysteries? Let me know in the comments if you have a favourite cosy author or book.

xo Bron
***

Put Out to Pasture by Amanda Flower.
Out now from Poisoned Pen Press Books
Source: I received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press (via NetGalley).
Category: Cosy murder mystery (second in series).

Put Out to Pasture on Goodreads.
Find Amanda Flower online here.
Check out my review of Amanda Flower’s Dead-End Detective here.
Check out my review of Amanda Flower’s Assaulted Caramel here.