I was curious about what kind of garden publications Chronicle Books would be putting out so I bought three in the series; Water Gardens, Paths and Walkways, and Small Patios. I think if I had seen these in the bookstore I would've probably put them back. I was expecting something a little heavier on the visuals from Chronicle Books.

But the examples are interesting. Nice range of elements, and tending to favor the quirky in design. The author describes the garden element in question (depends on which book you have) and uses one overall photograph and two detail shots. The detail shots seem there mostly for atmosphere and to break up the page. She also includes a one-page, how-to discussion, and a list of tools and materials.

I'm not looking forward to all the reading.

The only thing cozy about this book is the heat it will provide when burned in the fireplace after you get disgusted with the glacial pace, the two-dimensional characters, and the sheer dullness. I admit that I quit reading 3/4 of the way through, so maybe the excitement finally starts in the last quarter of the book. But I was so bored when I gave up that I didn't care who was murdered, who performed the murders, why the murders happened, or if the murderer was revealed. And I certainly didn't care what happened to the excessively shallow Mrs. Malory, her fellow lame instructors, or her perfectly unbelievable students. There's no one here with whom you can sympathize, nothing to catch you up, and very little to keep the pages turning. I only made it as far though the book as I did because I kept thinking there must be something worthwhile coming. If something worthwhile is in that last portion, it took far too long working its way into the story.

Much as I've enjoyed the Mrs Malory stories as a series, the quality has fallen off badly in the last two books.

"Fatal Legacy" was most definitely the best of the series, with the author steadily gaining in style, pace and interest up to that point.

Then came "Lilies that Fester". I've already reviewed that book so I'll not go into it in detail other than to say it was abyssmal.

The next book, "Delay of Execution", marks something of a comeback, but it still isn't anything much to write home about.

The problems are, basically, in the areas highlighted by the reviewer from Seattle. The characters are thoroughly two dimensional - even Mrs Malory - and the plot is totally sequential with not a diversion or red herring in sight.

This is not to say that the identity of the murder is ever obvious - it isn't, not even to Mrs Malory - and far from our heroine detecting the motive and identity of the "executioner" that person simply owns up on the spur of the moment, even though they clearly are no longer under suspicion.

As a light read about the kind of politiking that goes on in an English private school the story reads smoothly and is mildly interesting. As a murder mystery, however, it is pretty weak, not least because the author never really engages our sympathy for either of the two women who die.

In each case there is considerable ambiguity about whether the death was an accident or a murder, but the ambiguity is never developed upon so as to create any real tension. Still, having said that, at just 212 pages this isn't exactly a major tome, and I personally found the plotting substantial enough to hold my attention for the limited amount of time it took me to read the book through to the end.

In short, the quality of the story telling is still a long way off the author's earlier standard, and whilst it's a pleasant enough time filler, I'd be wary of recommending it to anyone who isn't already a DEDICATED fan of Mrs Malory's adventures, and maybe not even then.

When seventh level schoolteacher Margaret Hood died from diabetic coma, the English chair at Blakeney, Laura Wilson, asks former Oxford pal Sheila Malory to teach the class. Reluctantly the renowned literary critic and writer Sheila agrees to teach the five brilliant female eighteen-year-olds as they prepare for their exams.

The students are easy to work with as they turn out even more intelligent and motivated than advertised. However, Sheila begins to see a dark picture of Margaret emerge from a variety of sources. Learning further that Margaret perished by not taking her insulin, Sheila notices discrepancies in the account making her wonder if the perfect decorum of her pupils hide something more sinister.

Fans of cozies will enjoy the insightful look at life at the sheltered Birmingham school, sort of a modern day urbanized Miss Read tale. The story line is rich in detail and the key cast members including Margaret are fully developed so that the audience understands their motives. However, the mystery is slow in coming though once Sheila begins having doubts about her predecessor's death, her investigation takes off. Fans of an insular cozy in which the who-done-it begins in the latter half of the novel will relish Hazel Holt's MRS. MALORY AND THE DELAY OF EXECUTION.

Harriet Klausner

Hazel Holt's 'Mrs Malory' books have never been detective stories in the classic mould. That is to say, there has always been a tendency to concentrate on the characters, with the crime element growing out of the interactions of those characters.
Nevertheless, the books, numbering ten (up till now) have usually offered a satisfactory read and a reasonable degree of obscurity as to "who dunnit".

In "Lilies that Fester", however, Mrs Malory - or rather her creator, Ms Holt - seems to have totally lost the plot.

In the first place not only the identity of the murderer, but also the motivation, are clear as soon as the main characters have been introduced. Even the author seems to have realised that all was not well, since a majority of the book simply wanders round and round the same marginally interesting bits of story line and does little or nothing to help in the detecting the culprit.
Indeed, on the final two pages of Chapter Nineteen, Mrs Malory and her son decide that the only reason for bothering to solve the mystery is so that the son's fiancee will feel like agreeing to a date for their marriage.

This feeling that the author has lost all interest in her story is further emphasised in the half-hearted denoument wherein the characters decide not to hand the murderer over to the police, nor even to stop him embezzling a regular £1,000+ per week, apparently for no better reason than ... well, quite frankly for no apparent reason at all!

It's a daft ending to a vacuous story, and totally inconsistent with the central character's typically 'conservative' thinking and behaviour as depicted in the previous books in the series.

On this showing, it's definitely time for Mrs Malory to hang up her magnifying glass and disappear quietly into the sunset.