A Book Review by E. B. Davis: The Retired Assassin's Guide To Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner

 

Dante has come to the small coastal town of Te Kohe, New Zealand, for a fresh start in life. But he doesn't want to open a BnB, or save a charming bookshop, or start a romance with a single mother in need of rescuing.

He just wants to forget about his past career (which involved a lot of dead bodies) and have everyone leave him the heck alone. Unfortunately for Dante, life has other plans...

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Naomi Kuttner is a new, young author from New Zealand. Previously, she wrote a three-book urban-fantasy series. The Retired Assassin’s Guide To Country Gardening is her first cozy mystery.

 

I admit to debating if I wanted to read it, but due to it being on Kindle Unlimited and I found the title intriguing, I downloaded it. When I started reading, I did not understand that it had a paranormal element, which I now realize was due to my downloading the book on my iPhone rather than from my computer on the Amazon website. I guess the narrow format forced a reduction of description. As that is the case, the author needs to put a few more sentences into her jacket copy revealing that Te Kohe, the town in New Zealand where the action takes place, is haunted by past residents’ ghosts. I see paranormal as a plus, but I recognize others may not.

 

We soon learn that the main character, appropriately named Dante, has retired from being an assassin, and he is only in his early forties. This information doesn’t endear Dante to readers, but we do find that he is trying to reform. He is a member of an online group of AA (Assassins Anonymous), is a man of few words, and through his associations, is trying to lose the assassin’s mindset or at least redirect it in a positive way. The house he bought belonged to an old woman (now deceased) that has a greenhouse containing rare plants. When a young gardener, Charlie, knocks on his door, Dante learns that there is no avoiding the gardener or the town’s Garden Society because his greenhouse contains the rare Corpse Plant. The symbolism isn’t lost on Dante.

 

Enter a local hotel owner, who threatens to out Dante to the townspeople unless he serves as a bodyguard at an event. Dante agrees but only because he goes by the adage of “know thy enemy.” But it soon becomes apparent that Dante and Charlie are in the frame for a woman’s murder at the event, and Charlie is the only one who has motive. A townswoman in the know and about town in all the lady’s societies approaches Dante enlisting him to help her find the real murderer because she knows Charlie couldn’t have done such a deed. Having grown fond of Charlie and knowing he was set up to be in the frame, Dante agrees. But he observes that the woman, Eleanor, often pretends to be a frivolous airhead when she is anything but. It is she, their leader, who determines how they will get the truth to find the real murderer.

 

The rest of the plot is up to you to discover, but there is a lot of backstory affecting the plot and the outcome of the investigation. But I will say that about mid-way through the book, it is revealed that Dante was an assassin for (we assume) England, perhaps M16. That information helps the reader cope with Dante’s immorality since he didn’t kill to make a fortune, but he is more akin to a soldier. Knowing that  doesn’t sit well on Dante’s shoulders. He retired early for a reason. I included that tidbit to allay fears of those not wanting to champion an evil main character.

 

I recommend reading this book. It was unexpected and enjoyable. Ms. Kuttner provides a descriptive sentence summarizing each chapter heading tempting us to read further. I found them amusing and accurate.

 

A second in the series, The Assassin’s Guide To Orchid Hunting is due out in December of 2025.