The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening
Book One of the Retired Assassin's Guide Series
Dante has come to the small coastal town of Te Kohe, New Zealand, for a fresh start in life. But he doesn’t want to open a BnB, or save a charming bookshop, or start a romance with a single mother in need of rescuing.
He just wants to forget about his past career (which involved a lot of dead bodies) and have everyone leave him the heck alone. Unfortunately for Dante, life has other plans…
The Retired Assassin’s Guide is a fun, fresh paranormal cosy mystery. Come for the intrigue, stay for the gardening, found family, chatty ghosts, and opinionated cats.
Reviews
what people say
“Never kidnap an assassin’s cat.”
“A perfect cosy murder mystery.”
“Read it in one sitting. Loved it!”
“If Reacher retired to New Zealand… Retired Assassin’s Guide is gentle and kind and action-packed.”
“Murderbot meets Thursday Murder Club.”
“So easy to accidentally read until 3 in the morning.”
“Come for the murder, stay for the characters.”
“Picked this book up when I was in a reading slump and was blown away.”
“One of those perfectly quirky mysteries you can’t help but smile through.”
“I loved this book and want to see Daniel Craig playing Dante some day.”
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The Origin story...
It was 2024, and my twins were one week old. I was feeling as frazzled as any new mother: woken 4-5 times a night, no sleep, everything new and overwhelming…
…except I had it in stereo.
One morning, at around 3am, while feeding one baby and hoping the other wouldn’t wake up, I had the thought:
“I could really do with a spot of murder in my life.”
(It had nothing to do with the frequent night wakings. I promise…)
Add to that a powerful nostalgia for the New Zealand of my childhood, and the mythical time in my past when I had lots of free time for beaches, coffee, and catch-ups with friends...
....and the ‘Retired Assassin’s Guide’ series was born.
There’s more to it than that, though.
I’ve always loved mysteries. I started with the Famous Five and the Secret Seven, (stirling stuff) before graduating to Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. (As a kid, I felt sorry for the hound. I still do.)
Then there was Agatha Christie – the books and the wonderful series with David Suchet. Dorothy Sayers, Lord Peter Whimsey, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Rivers of London, Laurie R King’s Russell and Holmes series, and, of course, the Thursday Murder Club.
That last book was the final push that made me think: ‘You know, I think I could write one of these.
But I’ll set it in New Zealand. In a fictional small town, filled with all the parts of New Zealand I love best.’
And that was how the ‘Retired Assassin’s Guide’ came to be.
Book data
Author Naomi Kuttner - plotting murder...
story elements
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For Readers...
My favourite mystery writers:
- Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Richard Osman, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander McCall-Smith, Terry Pratchett (more police procedural), Agatha Christie (of course :) and Laurie R King.
Books similar to 'The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening':
- The Marlow Murder Club, Killers of a Certain Age, Thursday Murder Club, An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, Secret Book & Scone Society, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Dial A for Aunties, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, Arsenic and Adobo, The Maid
