A Good And Useful Hurt by Aric Davis

From Booklist

“Mike, who runs a tattoo shop in Michigan, doesn’t see anything wrong in granting a customer’s unusual request to give him a tattoo incorporating the ashes of his deceased son. Soon other customers are asking for the same thing, which is fine, except that his new and unique kind of body art appears to connect Mike to a serial killer, causing the lives of the people Mike cares about to be put in jeopardy. Teaming up with the shop’s new hire, a beautiful and aggressively offbeat body piercer, Mike plunges into darkness from which he might not return. This could have been a serviceable mystery yarn with a fresh setting (the world of the tattoo artist), but Davis’ highly engaging characters and accomplished prose style, combined with the story’s seriously dark tones, make it compelling reading. Highly recommendable.”— David Pitt

Review -

A very different kind of book for me but I found it hard to put down and I’m glad I read it.

Nipped In The Bud (Garden Gate Mysteries) by Susan Sleeman

Product Description

WHEN YOU FIND YOUR BOSS PUSHING UP DAISIES. . .

Life in full bloom, landscape designer, Paige Turner, scores her first landscaping contract to spruce up the park, her radio talk show shoots to number one, and her retail shop is simply blossoming. Yes, her life is a bed of roses. Until she finds City Manager, Bud Picklemann served up on the blade of her favorite shovel mere hours after she’s threatened to have his head on a platter, then the thorns come out. And there is none thornier than the local police chief declaring Paige the one and only suspect and threatening to plow her under.

YOU’VE GOT TO FORMULATE A PLANT OF ATTACK . . .

Paige teams up with dashing attorney, Adam Hayes to weed through the list of suspects, and clear her soiled reputation. A bigmouthed Parrot who often spouts Mr. T-isms, and a giant pickle mascot join in quirky Paige’s quest to once again cultivate control of her life.

Review -

This is the first book in the Garden Gate Mysteries Series by Susan Sleeman and I found it  a very pleasant read for a lazy warm afternoon. The characters are fun and I love the main characters name, PAIGE TURNER.  My daughter was a middle school librarian and is now an assoc. professer and teaches those who want to be librarians and she would get a kick out of this story just bcause of her name.  If you have a bit of time and want to read something light and fun – give this book a try.