Book Review: The Bush Tea Garden by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (Caribbean Island Mystery #1)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Naomi and the rest of the characters and setting brought to life by great writing

Cons: The structure didn’t work for me

The Bottom Line:

An island cold case

Characters and setting shine

Structure lets them down

Naomi Solves Her First…Side Quest

It had been a while since I tried a new to me author. I kept coming back to The Bush Tea Murder by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier. Billing itself as the first Caribbean Island Mystery, the combination of the setting and the fact that it also has a culinary theme convinced me to give it a shot. I wish it were as good as I hoped it would be. 

Naomi Sinclair is a culinary journalist living her dream with her job at EAT TV hosting a show where she gets to interview chefs. When a potential new show investigating culinary related cold cases is presented to her, she immediately thinks of a famous case on her native St. Thomas. Four decades ago, the owner of a tea company on the island was killed while locked in her office. It’s the perfect case for her potential pilot. But will she be able to solve it? 

If the book had focused on that case, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it. However, that’s not what this book turned out to be. Along the way, Naomi finds herself involved in a series of shorter mysteries that pull her focus. Since the author has previously published some short stories, I’m wondering if these stories were previously published elsewhere. Or maybe they were just the format she feels most comfortable with. Either way, there are attempts to tie these stories into the over arcing mystery since Naomi will often get something she needs from someone we met in these side quests after the short story is over. Honestly, if we connected all the parts focused on the main mystery together, it would probably be a short story itself. 

This is all presented as Naomi talking to the executives at the television network about what has happened over the last year as she investigated the story. So we kept jumping forward and back in time. Yes, it was all clearly marked, so I had no trouble following it all. 

At this point, I am sounding like Naomi’s annoying co-worker who is also competing for the gig hosting this potential new TV show. He keeps commenting about how Naomi gets sidetracked and wanting her to get on with it. I started out being very annoyed by him, but it wasn’t long before I agreed with him. Which also annoyed me. I didn’t want to be like him. 

Here’s the sad part. If the structure of this novel had been better, I am sure I would have loved it. The characters came to life for me. When I was reading, they’d pull me into whatever side quest Naomi was involved in at the moment. Her parents, her boyfriend, her best friend, other friends and neighbors – all outstanding. 

And the writing itself is very evocative. I felt like it was on St. Thomas with Naomi and the rest. 

I tried to give the book a chance since I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a typically structured novel. The problem was, the constant interruptions made it hard to stay invested. I couldn’t keep the suspects straight when we were talking about the main mystery since it might have been 75 pages since we’d talked about any of them. 

If this has been billed and set up as a short story collection, it would have worked for me. And I would have savored every page. 

Also, while this might appear to be a cozy, there is a fair amount of foul language, at least for that subgenre. 

If the next book in the series is a more traditional novel, I would gladly give the series another chance. But the structural problems keep The Bush Tea Murder from being anything other than average. 

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.