The Power of Gardening Detectives

I'm a big believer that characters need jobs--even full-time detectives! After all, Sherlock has his bees; Joan keeps up her license and eventually gets a kid. Jobs give characters things to master and discuss. 

I've mentioned in previous posts that writers and priests provide decent "other" jobs. 

So do gardeners!  

The British comedy-mystery with the excellent Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris is a great example. Their contract work allows them to visit different locations, from French and Italian villas to ritzy neighborhoods (during a local gardening competition) to a small allotment to a churchyard to a university. So much variety lends itself to a variety of crimes (though most of them fall into the "cozy" category).

There is still the "my goodness, everyone you go, murders crop up" (which problem lead Natalie in Monk to accuse him of being "the Prince of Darkness"). But again, it's British, so it's allowed. And the murders--like with Jessica on her tours but unlike the local priest--are not all occurring in a single area. 

More like the local priest, however, the ability for Rosemary and Laura to investigate WHILE replanting gardens and getting waterfalls to run is, oddly enough, a little more of a stretch than Jessica doing interviews and then returning to her hotel. 

But the use of a flower project is delightful. Just as Rosemary and Laura resolve a case and bring social harmony back into alignment, they also resolve the gardening issue and beautify their immediate environment. There's the usual sense of closure +!