Book Review: Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass by Heather Day Gilbert (Exotic Pet-Sitter Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Belinda in a good mystery

Cons: A couple of niggles, but nothing big

The Bottom Line:

Body in garden

Overcomes a shaky start

A good beginning

How did the Body Slither into Belinda’s Garden?

In the first half of the year, I’ve been very focused on continuing series I’ve already started.  But I finally decided to break into some new to me series.  I have collected multiple books by Heather Day Gilbert, so I figured it was time to start one of them, specifically, Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass, the first in the Exotic Pet-Sitter Mysteries.

As we meet Belinda, she’s just moved from New York City to Greenwich, Connecticut, where she is renting the carriage house behind the Carrington estate.  And she is currently pet-sitting the python of one of her clients.  But she’s barely settled in when she finds a young woman dead in the flower bed outside her cottage.  The victim was a friend of the handsome Stone Carrington the Fifth.  With the body being so close to her new home, Belinda starts to investigate.  Will she figure out what happened?

As I was starting the book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it.  Belinda found the dead body quickly enough, but the first couple of conversations with suspects seemed rather short and shallow to me.  However, as the book got going, I soon began to be pulled further into the story, and those conversations became more substantive.  The ending was a little weaker than I tend to like, but it did keep me turning pages and answer all my questions.

I did enjoy meeting Belinda.  I am curious to see who the regulars are going to be based on how this one ended.  I don’t think the series will go in the direction I initially expected, which would be a fun surprise.  Since there are only three books, it hopefully won’t take me long to find out.  Either way, the characters we met here were fun and developed enough to make me care about the outcome.

And yes, the snake does play a part in the story.  I wouldn’t say I have a phobia of snakes, but if you do, you might want to keep that in mind.

I enjoyed this book enough to be planning to revisit the series soon.  Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass has a bit of a different hook, but it is one that worked for me.