Customer Reviews

The Accidental Florist (Jane Jeffry Mysteries, No. 16)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(90)

 

 

I love Jane and Shelley. I wanted to love this book. Really I did. For the past ten years, I have waited for each new book to come out so I could savor every page. I have read every book in this series over the years and I have to admit, the last few have been a little disappointing, but this one should be an embarrasment to the author.

This "mystery" doesn't seem to be a mystery at all, but rather a mindless list of how to add a room to your house, pick the right fabric swatch for a wedding and change cat litter pans. Even worse than this boring grocery list of pointless actions, there are glaring contradictions in the story. First Jane is glad she changed the litter pans when the architect comes over and then, five pages later, she's buying litter pans becasue the cats have been "outside " cats that have forgotten how to use them.

I sincerely hope this is the last installment of the series because it was terrible. It makes me very sad to see what once was a delightful series slide into such junk. It makes me sad also to see an author, with an established name and publishing career, submit a book like this to the marketplace and actually take people's money for it. I would rather imagine Jane and Shelly somewhere actually solving a mystery than to see the characters turned into boring ninnies. If the author can do no better than this, I hope she will do the ethical thing, put down the pen and stop preying on those of us who have been faithful readers over the years.

Well, this will be my last Jane Jeffry mystery. I forced myself to finish the book because I was waiting for the mystery to appear but unfortunately it didn't. This book was a complete waste of my time. Don't even bother borrowing it from a library.

Given that I had resolved never to write another review for one of Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffrey mystery series ever again, especially if the book failed to meet expectations, need I add my voice to the chorus of disappointed readers? I think that I need to, given that both author and publishers expect us (the reading public) to shell out hardcover prices for book that had very little to offer at all.

This latest Jane Jeffrey mystery reads like the last installment in the series, and I, for one, rather hope that it is. As other reviewers have already mentioned there isn't any mystery to speak off. Mel convinces Jane and Shelly to attend some safety causes (which actually has some useful info but came across more as an exercise in scaring the living daylights out of women). Their instructor is found dead, but neither Jane nor Shelley ever get involved in figuring out why the woman was murdered and by whom. That whole mystery gets solved "off-stage" by Mel (Jane's fiancee and a police detective) and his assistant. Jane and Shelley, in "The Accidental Florist" never really get involved in the case at all. No, Jane and Shelley spend most of the book consulting over fabric swatches, and discussing how awful Mel's mother is. Why exactly are we expected to pay $23.95 for this?

The Jane Jeffrey series used to be something I really looked forward to reading; unfortunately, the last few installments have been sad disappointments, and "The Accidental Florist" really takes the cake. I couldn't even figure out why this book was entitled so. All in all, this was a sad, sorry read, and I'd advise anyone who hasn't already bought or borrowed the book to believe all of us reviewers so far and steer clear of this book!

But I read this book and realized I had no mystery to review.

The last few Jane Jeffry books have slowly been going downhill. I had hoped that this one would bring the series back to its earlier glory.

Hopes Dashed.

Here's a quick review.

1. Jane Gets Engaged To Det. Mel.

2. Jane & Best Friend Shelley Plan Wedding.

3. Jane has past and future in-law problems.

4. Jane picks out flowers for wedding.

5. Jane picks out material swatches for wedding hat.

6. Jane builds office for Mel at her house.

7. Jane cleans out refrigerator, pantry, cabinets, garage and learns all about new kitty litter products.

8. Jane and Shelley go to a defensive training class.

9. There are two murders.

First murder is of young girl attending defensive training class. Doesn't do her much good as boyfriend kills her. Second murder if of defensive training teacher.

I haven't noticed any of the other reviews mentioning the first murder, but that's not surprising as it only covers about 1 page. Second murder is the main one, although it doesn't cover very many pages either.

Jane and Shelley do absolutely nothing to solve this crime. Jane does ask a few questions of Mel, but the crime solving is done solely by Mel and the police.

Highlights:

I've always liked Mel. He's been the same throughout the series. Nice guy doing his job.

Shelley. She's the kind of best friend everyone wishes they had.

Lowlights.

All the reviews can't be wrong. There is no mystery in this book. There is murder, but at the end of the book, I don't know if I missed vital information earlier, or what, but I didn't know why the murder happened, how it happened, who these people were, what was their relationship with the victim.

We do know what their actual relationship to the victim was, but why were they estranged, why would they want to kill her? Why did they find them in one place when they thought they were somewhere else?

Why are we bored with having to read a chapter of Jane's new book that she started to write? I hope that isn't going to be spun off into a new series for Jill Churchill.

Very disappointing, but I do disagree with another reviewer, I like Jill Churchill's Grace and Favor mystery series, although the last one in that series left a lot to be desired as well.

Used to love the series, not this book. No mystery. Boring. Insipid. Nice to know Jane has enough money to throw around and indulge herself. Potentially emotional events (death of dog, mother-in-law, her weddings) treated as though they didn't matter. And how many people know contractors who enjoy having day-to-day supervision by the homeowner? Or weddings for 300-400 people that can be put together in 3 weeks?

There is NO EXCUSE AT ALL for this book.

The author, the editor and the publisher should all be ashamed that this amateur effort made it into print. I started flagging all the contradictions and errors in the text - and ran out of slips of paper. For example, on p. 37, Jane says "Thank G*d I just cleaned out the kitty litter boxes this morning." and then on page 57, Jane dashes out to buy kitty litter bins and tells us far, far more than we want to know about kitty litter.

There is NO MURDER MYSTERY in this book - Jane's cop finance has a case and solves it mostly off-stage. So what? We never meet the "perps" and have no understanding at all of how the case was relevant to the book. Instead, we get more kitty litter details, contradictions, and, worst crime of all, Jill Churchill uses this book to pimp for her other series of books (which is also going downhill rapidly).

Jane and cohort Shelley come across as petty-minded, long-winded airheads in this book; who wants to read about such people? Jane repeatly boasts about her wealth, and both speak in semi-archaic, high-flalutin' language that pretty much turned my stomach.

Thousands of unnecessary adjectives padded this book out to measely 209 pages. Properly edited, it would have been a short story.

Please boycott this book, and send the message to William Morrow that they should have the courage to tell some writers when it is time to quit.

With an almost empty nest and after years of dating police detective Mel Van Dyne, Jane Jeffrey decides it's time they get married. Jane is determined to have the wedding she wants even if it means battling with her late husband's mother Thelma and her soon to be mother-in-law Addie. While Jane easily deals with Addie by setting ground rules and refusing to let them be broken, she has a harder time dealing with Thelma who is becoming increasingly nasty and doing her best to try and take away the money Jane inherited from her late husband. When she's not dealing with Thelma and Addie, Jane is preparing to write her next book and also overseeing the addition of an office for Mel onto her house. Also, Mel wants Jane and her best friend Shelly Nowack to take a women's safety class. Jane and Shelley agree and learn some useful tips until their instructor is murdered. Now Jane really has her hands full as she adds helping Mel solve the murder to her long list of things to do.

While I used to enjoy Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffrey series, it's gone down hill the last few books and "The Accidental florist" is no better. The writing is clunky and the dialogue awkward. One example of this is when Churchill has Jane, who has been dating Mel for years, tell Mel exactly how much money she has and how her husband died, something she should have told him years ago. There are continuity errors like when Mel says he is taking the day off to attend a meeting with Jane and a few pages later Jane checks to make sure he has the next day off to attend the meeting. Later on Churchill has Jane running out to buy litter boxes for her cats saying she didn't have any, even though in an earlier chapter Jane had cleaned their litter boxes! Ironically enough, Churchill stresses how carefully Jane researches her books before writing them, perhaps Churchill should do the same. While I found some of the advice Jane and Shelley got during their safety class to be useful, after a while it felt like filler for the book as did the many details of the building of Mel's office. The mystery plot line is poorly done and written - Mel does all the investigating (and most of that is off-page) instead of Jane and Shelley. And the recurring gag of Shelley's husband not being seen in the books wears too thin in this book when he misses Jane and Mel's wedding for the flimsiest of excuses.

"The Accidental Florist" has some touches that reminded me of what I used to like about the series - little things like Jane's sneaking a cigarette when she felt stressed; a touching moment involving her dog; interesting glimpses into the world of book writing, publishing, and promotion; and Mel and Jane's decision to forego wedding gifts and having money sent to various charities instead (one of the few times in the book that Jane was likable). But these were only brief glimpses that make it even sadder to realize how good the series used to be and how much it's gone down hill.

I LOVE the Jane Jeffrey series. I have read them all and own several. I'm glad I checked this one out of my library rather than buy it. It is disappointing, for all the reasons mentioned in other reviews. I, too, have a problem with the *SPOILER* old dog's and the mother-in-law's death. The dog is mourned for approximately 2 pages and then never mentioned again. Jane's treatment of her mother-in-law, in my opinion, borders on hateful. When her mother-in-law meets her at a restaurant for lunch, and comments "I see you have already ordered a drink", Jane responds "It's just a mild Chianti. I won't get falling down drunk, if that's what you mean."!!!! Seems a little uncalled for, to me. I know her MIL is hateful to her, but she is elderly, and sometimes hateful behavior is a precursor to a stroke or other serious health condition. Even her own son doesn't mourn her. It just seems, again, hateful behavior on Jane's part. I also caught the part mentioned in another review, about Jane being glad she cleaned the cat box before the contractor goes into her basement, and then several chapters later runs out to buy cat boxes and kitty litter.??!?
Overall, disappointing. Hope the next one's better!

I have enjoyed Jill's writing for years... but this wasn't award winning writing, this was what my eighth graders write... actually, they write better than this. Does Jill not want to write anymore for this publisher and wants to get dumped? Did she have a deadline to meet and no time to write? I am almost sure she could not have written this. It was worse than bad; the dialogue and explanations for EVERYTHING drove me crazy. I felt like I was in kindergarten having all the childish explanations. I almost didn't finish the book! There was no emotion at all from Jane as far as her marriage to Mel. Good God, she's finally marrying a man who loves her and she acts like it's nothing! And what about all those commercials for brand name products? Was Jill paid a small fortune by Starbucks, Nordstrom, Jeep, Cuisinart, The New York Times and various food producers whose food products were mentioned? Sorry Jill, didn't like it.
Mary Anne Kavanaugh

With all due respect to Jill Churchill's (friend's) collegue's review, I did get the "underlying social commentaries" - though I didn't need to ruminate on the book once I closed it. I read cozy murder mysteries to be entertained. Also, I did not appreciate the author's opinions regarding Christians. Very few Christians are "nasty church people". That having been said this book was a huge disappointment. I have read all of the Jane Jeffry novels and usually look forward to the new ones. This was a true dog. There was, as the other reviewers noted, no mystery involved.

SPOILER: I don't mind Jane developing a backbone, but instead of a backbone she became a raving witch. The dog and Thelma both are killed off. The dog as though it were an afterthought and Thelma most cruelly in that Thelma's grandchildren and son join in the Thelma bashing-fest with no emotion or caring. That is truly sad.

I hope that if Jill Churchill writes another of this series she will make the distinction between "backbone" and "down right rude". The characters used to be fun.