THE GARDEN PLOT DIARIES Stories One Through Four

It would be easy to characterize this short audiobook as simply the rantings of a crabby old man, but voice actor Richard Salem makes the four stories a listening treat. Here are tales representative of their location, small-town New Hampshire. The unnamed octogenarian narrator discusses the cycle of nature, the spiritual side of gardening, infighting among women's groups, governmental overreach, recycling traumas, the consequences of mushroom-infused homemade cheese, and a terrifying Halloween horror story involving a pumpkin. Salem's voice is throaty, deep, and, at times, crotchety. The well-paced stories offers plot twists, drama, and laugh-out-loud moments. The humor is often wry or sardonic and sometimes crude. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2023]