Pickled Petunia

Pickled Petunia (2021) Dahlia Donovan (Motts Cold Case Mystery)

The third Motts mystery finds a young woman at Motts’ door, asking for help in finding her mother.

It also find the London detective in charge of the cold case from Motts’ childhood worried that the person who killed her best friend as a child has actually be targeting everyone in her class–which makes Motts a probably intended victim.

Because Motts is autistic, she has a great deal of trouble with social cues. Her being ace, exacerbates this.

“Is this a sex thing? I don’t do that.” Motts wrinkled her nose. She shuddered. “Gross. I mean, not you. You’re brilliant, I’m sure. I’ll shut up now. Bugger.”

Dempsey snorted in amusement and laughed for almost two minutes. “No, nothing to do with sex. Why would you even think that?”

“Experience with not understanding neurotypicals. Nine times out of ten, it’s sex.”

What I find fascinating about this series is that you can see things happening around Motts, but she is utterly oblivious to them–and doesn’t seem to care one way or another.

One can guess that the reason the detectives are spending so much time around her is because of the pretty serious threat to her life. But although Motts finds it odd they keep spending so much time in town, it’s more in passing, as if it doesn’t truly have anything to do with her.

Publisher: Tangled Tree Publishing
Rating: 7.5/10

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