THE MARIGOLD COTTAGES MURDER COLLECTIVE...nope

THE MARIGOLD COTTAGES MURDER COLLECTIVE
JO NICHOLS
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: The perfect summer read, full of charm and heart, written in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Building but with a southern California twist.

Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people she cares about: Sophie, an anxious young playwright with a dark past; Hamilton, an agoraphobe who likes to overshare; Ocean, a queer sculptor raising two kids alone; the perfectionist Lily-Ann; and Nicholas, a finance bro who’s hiding secrets.

The tenants live contentedly in their doll-house bungalows in Santa Barbara, just minutes from the beach, until their peace is shattered when Anthony, a quiet, hulking, but potentially violent ex-con moves in. Three weeks later, a dead body is discovered on the streets of the peaceful neighborhood. Anthony is arrested, and the tenants heave sighs of relief. Until Mrs. B, convinced that he's innocent, marches down to the police station and confesses to the crime herself. The tenants band together and form “The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective” to save their beloved landlady. As clues are unearthed and secrets are revealed, the community of misfits only grows more tight-knit...until a second body is found. Full of eccentricity, humor, community, The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective will keep you hooked until the last page.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Mrs. B might care about these people; I didn't. (Didn't care about her, either; kept thinking Mrs. Madrigal had had ECT.)

Ocean was tolerable; Sophie was not; Anthony...what was that about? Like asking a casting director to write you a TV pilot or giving the cinematographer control over the budget, this felt like what happens when there are people deciding things outside their skill set. Much like finance-bro Nicholas, who was hiding secrets I don't remember because I didn't care before or after I knew them.

I give it stars for being seriously lacking in the usual copaganda vibes in cozy mysteries. The police aren't bumbling boobs or mustachio-twirling villains; they're creepy because they are the hulls left after Conformity and Capitalism bash idealism into sludgy slop. They're not solving the real crimes but enforcing Order.

Refreshingly, even bracingly, honest.

PoVs come and go, which will become a trope if this turns into a series. I've already said I didn't like the characters so it wasn't like the tonal shifts took me out of the one character I didn't like's PoV but rather bounced me from insufferable Artiste to dull mom to cipher. I suspect others will feel differently. I see star ratings I simply can't imagine the basis for all over Netgalley and Goodreads.

Like those Osman and Backman and Robinson books, once was enough. Y'all keep lappin' it up; I'll be trawling for something that's not this in the bookstores.