The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening / Orchid Hunting, Naomi Kuttner

Despite these two books being part of a series called "The Retired Assassins Guide", these are cosy crime, with some surprising twists.

Particularly when you consider that Dante has come to a small coastal town in New Zealand to forget his past career and the large number of dead bodies that involved. He certainly didn't come to think about BnB's, bookshops or romance, a gardener that sees dead spirits, dodgy developers, a neighbour with a few agenda's of her own, gardening societies and a greenhouse full of exotic plants.

Definitely none of those things, not even becoming a reluctant cat adoptee. None of it. He's not planning on anything other than quiet contemplation of his present and future, the chance to put his past behind him supported by Assassins Anonymous, and do, well nothing much if possible.

Which isn't going to happen in Te Kohe. Rather, in the first novel THE RETIRED ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO COUNTRY GARDENING he finds himself co-opted by a local, take charge woman, Eleanor, all while trying to find his feet in a very different world from the one he's left behind - sort of.

Told in the sort of breathless, chaotic style that often comes with these types of books, there's a sense of fun here that will have to grab a reader, in particular, for the first book to work at all. Mind you, if you're here for the gardening chat, you may have to stick it out as it's not as present here, as in the second novel THE RETIRED ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO ORCHID HUNTING.

There were points in both of these novels where I did find myself smiling, as were there points at which the eye roll was probably endangering my optic nerves. Obviously this series is not meant to be anything other than entertaining, and as with all things vaguely comedic, your sense of humour is going to have to match up with the author's. But there is a lot here - from support groups for assassins, a fish out of water story, a gardener who talks to dead people, and a steam roller character who is probably going to annoy the hell out of some readers.

Let's put all of it down to a YMMV read - get the fun and you've got a series made in heaven. Find it all a bit ridiculous and there are other, more straight down the line cosy series that might work for you. For what it's worth this reader loved the assassin, the support group and all that went with that. The paranormal stuff - not so much.