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Book Review
Reviewed: 26 February 2026

The Gardeners' Club

by: Marnie Riches

a novel

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starstar outlinestar outline (3.0/5)

The healing powers of community, gardening, and a little sleuthing

The story of Gill and the Bromley Botanists gardening club is not quite what one might expect (channeling character Margorie). This is more of a story of the members of a gardener’s club fighting through a myriad of life’s challenges to create beauty through plants. Along the way, a murder happens. 

Throughout the story, we are given peeks into the lives of the Bromley Botanists’ lives through Gill’s eyes. In the past, they may have been deemed a group of misfits. Their varied backgrounds, ages, and life challenges meld and bring them together as an unlikely group. 

Gill, a widow with a 17-year-old son, has so many life challenges that she feels guilty doing something for herself. I don’t read many coming-of-age stories, so I am not sure if that categorization applies here, but that’s what it felt like in reading/listening to this story. Gill is working to move past her grief at the passing of her husband 10 years earlier. She’s got work pressure, concern about her son, who’s struggling in school, and a mom she’s caring for. 

With the urging of her son (love their relationship) and her therapist, Gill joins the gardening club. Along the way, each of them changes, and the group itself changes. There are many life lessons mixed in, some very subtly that if you blink, you might miss them, and others that stand up proudly. There is also the reminder of not judging a book by its cover, as Gill finds out firsthand when she gets to know one of the younger club members.

If you are looking for a cozy mystery, not sure this is it. Yes, there was a murder, and yes, the club did some digging into it, but the story was more about the club and the club members’ personal growth. Maybe because of this, the story might feel like it has a slow pace. 

Overall, I enjoyed the story once I got passed it was less of a cozy mystery. It is listed as a novel, but it could easily be a series.

Thank you, #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia, for the opportunity to listen and share my thoughts.

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 3-March-2026
British, Audiobook, NetGalley, Female-Led

Plot Summary

Gardening is dirty work—but should it be deadly? When a corpse turns up in the community greenhouse, Gill Swanley discovers her new hobby might be more dangerous than she imagined.

When Gill Swanley decides to take up gardening to fight a bad case of midlife malaise, she never expected it to become quite such a dangerous hobby.

Pushing herself to "get out there," Gill picks herself up the secateurs and joins the Bromley Botanists. Here she finds a seven–strong group whose main agenda is how to win the coveted Golden Trowel for best community club of the year.

But when a dead body turns up in the community greenhouse, they suddenly have more serious matters to consider than victory. They must uncover whether their arch–rivals, Croydon, are taking things to another level or whether someone more dangerous is targeting their rag tag group.

Can they dig up the truth before someone else is left pushing up the daisies?