Before she died, Agnes Sutton made arrangements with several shop owners that her slow-witted son Toby would do odd jobs for them. All of the shop owners, including flower shop owner Bretta Solomon, like Toby and are happy to oblige. Toby was liked by all, which is why it's so perplexing that someone would murder him by rigging a hornet's nest set to fall and break open when Toby opened his bedroom door. Even more perplexing, the motive seems to be that Toby discovered someone was stealing his mother's hibiscus plants. Bretta has investigated some murders in the past and with the encouragement of the other shop owners, she looks into Toby's murder. She has plenty of suspects, including all the shop owners Toby worked for, some who weren't as kind to Toby as Bretta initially thought. When Bretta isn't busy selling flowers or investigating the murder, she is working on rebuilding a relationship with her father and turning her house into a boarding house. But even that has its problems as Bretta wonders about the relationship between her father and interior designer Abigail Dupree. As Bretta investigates Toby's murder, she realizes that many people and events aren't what they seem to be on the surface.

"Bindweed" was a mixed bag. Author Janis Harrison's greatest strength in writing is her characterization and Bretta Solomon is a great character - a widow rebuilding her life and in a new relationship with Bailey Monroe. Her struggles with her weight, as well as her struggles in dealing with her father are well written and believable. Other characters are equally well written especially Toby, Bretta's housekeeper DeeDee, her coworkers Lew and Lois, gruff Sheriff Sid Hancock, and the various shop owners. Even Agnes, Toby's mother, dead before the book starts, is well written, as people talk about what she was like and we get to see inside her house and how she set it up for Toby. But other parts of the book didn't work as well for me. Since this book was part of a series (which I didn't know when I picked it up) I felt confused about some things in the book - like how Bretta's husband died and why her relationship with her father was so strained. Also, the mystery elements didn't really work for me. There were two murders in the book, but neither seemed realistically done - I never could figure out how the murderer was able to get the hornet's nest in Toby's room without letting the hornets loose. And the motive for the murder was convoluted and unbelievable, as was the killer's reaction when caught.

"Bindweed" had its moments, but ultimately was disappointing. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book. I guess I was in a "cozy mystery" reading mood. The gardening mystery setting was interesting. The characters were sufficiently developed and a good variety although this is not the first book in this series. There were several instances where the author could have added a paragraph or so to make the action properly flow. I would be in favor of reading more in the series but probably would not go out of my way to locate the other books. ( )