Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen - Book Three: The Dead Man in the Garden

Young Aggie Morton and her cohort in crime-solving, Hector Perot, are at it again in this third volume of the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series for children.  First, she discovered a body under the piano.  Then she found a body in the library.  Now, she and Hector come across a body in the gardens behind a posh resort and spay.  Author Marthe Jocelyn has definitely shown she has the Agatha Christie-like skills to create some very ingenuous murder mysteries, with plots that are definitely on par with some of the finest adult mystery writers.  While I still wish our protagonists were a bit older (I just don't see the fascination of children's mystery writers making their young sleuths even younger, these days - back when Nancy Drew and friends were popular, the amateur sleuths were anywhere from 16 to 18 years old - something for young readers to aspire to!  Now, it seems all the books feature protagonists who are 12 or 13 years old, pretty much the same age as their readers - which brings to question how such young children, particularly those in books set in the past, have such enormous amounts of freedom to be out and about solving crimes!), I enjoy the mysteries so much that I can forgive the young age.

The Dead Man in the Garden takes Aggie, her mother, her grandmother, and her best friend, Hector, out of London once again and to the Wellspring Hotel and Spa in Yorkshire, where it is hoped that Aggie's mother will find some healing in the spa waters there.  Aggie and Hector run into - LITERALLY - a young boy in a wheelchair who nearly gives an older guest a heart attack.  George is there in the hopes the spa will help revive life into his legs; while the gentleman is there to help him remain calm, as he has a weak heart.  Aggie and Hector make friends with George and his nurse, and Hector takes up playing croquet with George while Aggie chats with the nurse each afternoon.  But, this is Aggie and Hector we are talking about, so soon enough, a dead body turns up and the two youngsters are on the case!

Mr. Hart (you know, the man with the "heart" condition - so perfect choice of names!) is found dead in the gardens, sitting on a bench.  Aggie and Hector happen across the body while strolling with Mr. Hart's niece, Josie Upton (who is there on her honeymoon with her new husband).  There does not appear to be any readily apparent cause of death, and Dr, Baden, who runs the spa connected with the hotel, pronounces he died of a heart attack.  Aggie and Hector are not quite ready to accept this theory, since (a) Mr. Hart had been called away from the dinner table by an unexpected phone call telling him his niece had been injured, when clearly she had not been; (b) there were signs of a struggle on the back of and next to the bench; (c) a croquet mallet was missing; and (d) Aggie had noticed that Mr. Hart reacted strangely the first time he entered the spa, leading her to believe there was more to this story.  Which, of course, there is.

Jocelyn weaves a well-crafted tale that is intended to keep the reader guessing up until the very end.  She introduces a number of red herrings that keep Aggie and Hector (along with the reader) side-tracked, and she provides some fun characters, including a female undertaker, a slick hotel owner, a questionable nurse, and the return of the ever-so-nosy Augustus Fibbley (and if you remember who that is, then you'll know that his appearance results in some very interesting confrontations with Aggie and Hector!).  There are definitely a number of suspects - the niece's husband, who was upset his uncle-in-law refused to look at his work; the niece, who was set to inherit quite a bit of money upon her uncle's death; the nurse at the spa, who seems to have quite the mean streak; George's nurse, who has a few secrets of her own that she has been hiding; the doctor at the spa, who has now lost two patients in the span of just a few months; and the hotel owner, who will do just about anything to keep his hotel from facing bad publicity.  And just how does the death of poor Mr. Hart connect to the death of the elderly woman who was previously a patient at the spa (and had left the spa and hotel after becoming more ill, before finally being found dead on a park bench a few days later)?  Is there a connection, or it is pure coincidence?  Well, that's something Aggie and Hector (oh, and George, too, for he seems determined to insinuate himself into the crime-solving duo) have to figure out before another body turns up!

Now, as an adult reader, it was not really too difficult to spot the killer pretty much from the get-go - even the motive was pretty easy to see.  But I'll admit, the stolen items from the hotel guests certainly left me wondering, and the final confrontation with the killer was a thrill-ride to read!  Jocelyn definitely knows how to play up the suspense at just the right moments.  Can't wait to see what she has in store in the next book!

RATING:  10 strands of hair and a few fingernails out of 10 for another Agatha Christie-worthy tale of murder, secrets, lies, and sleuthing!