Footprints in the Ferns

Dale Mayer

Aug 2019 · Lovely Lethal Gardens (eBook Series) Book 6 · Valley Publishing Ltd.

About this ebook

Riches to rags. ... Controlling to chaos. ... But murder ... not this time!

One night 10 years ago, 8-year-old Crystal, vanished from her bed in her parents’ house, the only clue a footprint in the flowerbed below the girl’s window. 

Now that footprint’s reappeared, this time at the scene of another crime, and Doreen is under strict orders not to stick her nose into Corporal Mack Moreau’s new investigation.

But while Mack is busy with the new case, Doreen figures it can’t hurt if she just takes a quick look at the old one. Her house is empty, her antiques removed, and she has time on her hands. She’s finished working on Penny’s garden and needs a new project to keep her busy – and allow her to avoid the heavy work waiting in her own garden. And with the help of her assistants, Thaddeus the parrot, Goliath the Maine Coon, and Mugs the Basset, soon Doreen is busy navigating the world of pawn shops and blackmail as she looks for clues as to what happened to the girl stolen from her bedroom so many years ago. 

Surely, it’s not her fault when her case butts up against the new one – is it?

cozy mystery; riches to rags; clean romance; animal mystery; cat and dog; mystery; Female sleuth; back yard mystery; Mystery; Animals; Parrots; Birds; Fun; amateur sleuths; mysteries with dogs; mysteries with Cats; Clean and wholesome;

Ratings and reviews

I was looking forward to this book as I am hooked on this series and Dale Mayer does not disappoint! I loved the book from start to finish. Love the shenanigans the main character gets caught up in with her inherited three pets. Love that she keeps an ongoing dialogue with the pets and that they are treated as almost human. I love the relationship between the two main characters, Doreen and Mack. And really love the many escapades of Doreen' Nan. She is so adorable and funny and unpredictable. If you love a good mystery and some laughs you will love this book and this series. I cannot wait for the next book in the series! I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Funny, easy read, naive lady good tough cop and gorgeous pets, bird, cat, dog and baddie or TWO, what more could you ask for?😻

Footprints, Furniture, and Family I’m not sure which of this book’s parallel plots (Footprints in the Ferns AND Furniture under the Floorboards) held more interest for me (loved them both!), but it seems the common theme here is family. As Doreen walks down Nan’s memory lane with all the memorabilia she comes across in clearing out Nan’s antiques for a major auction house event, she is filled with love for her sweet-yet-still-sassy grandmother whose investment in the many valuable pieces of furniture, books, and art was always intended to provide Doreen's financial support for an independent life. The memories she finds date back even to Nan’s Nan, who would leave treats and trinkets in secret drawers and compartments for her own granddaughter to find. Doreen’s excitement as she continued to discover things in places she didn’t even know existed in the old house was incredibly exciting for me as well. Of course, between sessions with the antiques experts, Doreen cannot clear her mind of the footprints recently found at what looked like a foiled child abduction that were a match for the footprints found outside the scene of an unsolved disappearance of a young girl ten years ago. In this storyline, we see a couple of examples that show the definition of family that transcends traditional genealogy. When Mack is almost run off the road, the family known as Goliath, Mugs, and Thaddeus are the ones who convince Doreen that something bad has happened to Mack. No spoilers here, so as you read about solving the connection between the matching footprints, see whether you can spot the family theme there as well. Good luck and good reading! I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.