I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective
by Jo Nichols
Published by Minotaur Books on August 19, 2025
Genres: Romantic Mystery
Pages: 344
Format: Audible Audiobook, Hardcover, Kindle
Source: NetGalley
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
The perfect summer read, full of charm and heart, written in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Building but with a southern California twist.
Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people she cares about: Sophie, an anxious young playwright with a dark past; Hamilton, an agoraphobe who likes to overshare; Ocean, a queer sculptor raising two kids alone; the perfectionist Lily-Ann; and Nicholas, a finance bro who’s hiding secrets.
The tenants live contentedly in their doll-house bungalows in Santa Barbara, just minutes from the beach, until their peace is shattered when Anthony, a quiet, hulking, but potentially violent ex-con moves in. Three weeks later, a dead body is discovered on the streets of the peaceful neighborhood. Anthony is arrested, and the tenants heave sighs of relief. Until Mrs. B, convinced that he's innocent, marches down to the police station and confesses to the crime herself. The tenants band together and form “The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective” to save their beloved landlady. As clues are unearthed and secrets are revealed, the community of misfits only grows more tight-knit...until a second body is found. Full of eccentricity, humor, community, The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective will keep you hooked until the last page.
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols sets the stage for a community of tenants to solve a crime.
Can the Marigold Cottages Murder Collective solve the mystery to keep their new neighbor and landlady home?
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective brings together six people to help the new neighbor. This group of people is totally weird, but together they actually make a great team. The Murder Collective works well together, bringing out the best in each other and trying to keep each other safe. Apart from the collective, it doesn’t work quite as well since they all fall into bad habits.
The Marigold Cottages
The owner of the Marigold Cottages is a sweet old lady named Mrs. Golda Bakofsky. She inherited the cottages from her deceased husband, and Mrs. B (as she is affectionately known to everyone in the collective) loves renting them out to people she cares about, even if she doesn’t know much about them. I love how spunky she is, and getting people to do things for her just because she’s an old lady. Another thing I love about her is that she dislikes the fact that the police didn’t treat her as an actual suspect just because she’s old.
Sophie Gilman
Sophie Gilman was the most recent addition to the Marigold Cottages before Anthony Lambert moved in. She is in her twenties and wants to start over after something horrible happened to her in college. Sophie is an amateur playwright and wants to become a professional playwright. She got a job at the local theater, but hasn’t written an actual play since college. I like Sophie and how she is always apologizing, but always wanting to do the right thing. She is the first person to find the dead body, which got the ball rolling for this group.
Hamilton
Hamilton doesn’t like to go outside of his little cottage. The meetings are held at his place, and he is starting to care about everyone in their cute little community. He tries to be useful in his own way. Hamilton likes to spew random facts about certain things, which is funny but also unhelpful when he says them. I like Hamilton even if he doesn’t leave his cottage to do much of anything, since he is a good guy.
Ocean Mistral
Ocean is the mother of an elementary school and middle school student. She is also an artist who tries her best to give her children a normal childhood. Yet, nothing is truly normal for anyone. Ocean is a great mother. However, her oldest daughter is at that trying preteen age and doesn’t like to do as expected. I like Ocean and how she is dealing with a tough time of being a mother and working as an artist while trying to do things right for her kids and keep a murderer off the streets.
Lily-Ann Novak
Lily-Ann Novak is a perfectionist who works from home all the time. She is also separated from her husband, who doesn’t really care for her. Lily-Ann is an awesome person. She doesn’t have an excellent track record of self-love, but she is slowly getting better. I like Lily-Ann a lot as she is growing, and even though she is a perfectionist, she tries not to let it control her as much as it used to.
Nicholas Perez
Of all the members of this collective, Nicholas Perez has the most secrets of all of them. Nicholas Perez is a finance broker who works in real estate and the zoning part of the world. He doesn’t know whether he should open up to anyone in the collective, since he doesn’t really see it as his place to do so, even though he is part of the community. I had a hard time warming up to Nicholas, as everyone else in the collective did as well, but I could tell that he was a good egg once he really got to talking.
Anthony Lambert
Anthony Lambert doesn’t really have a place to live until he meets Mrs. B, and he moves into the last livable space on the property. He is a tattooed ex-con who wants to put his past behind him and get on with his life, but it’s hard when the police want to frame him for everything. I do like Anthony and couldn’t believe how the police were treating him.
The Mystery
Sophie Gilman was on her way out to go to work when she stumbled upon the first victim. The police arrest Anthony because it’s clear to them that he’s their only suspect, which they realize once they find out that he was in jail before and that it’s an obvious red herring. Speaking of red herrings, I fell for them twice in this story. Ms. Nichols did an excellent job writing this story.
Five Stars
My rating for The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols is five stars. I do recommend this story as it kept me guessing on who could’ve committed the crime and why. Ms. Nichols did an excellent job of keeping me from the actual murderer, and I love writings like this since it makes me gasp and look back for those hints.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols.
Happy Reading!
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About Jo Nichols
JOEL ROSS is the author of an award-winning fogpunk adventure series that includes THE FOG DIVER and THE LOST COMPASS, the BEAST & CROWN series, and ALLEY & REX series. As Joel Naftali, he wrote a skunkpunk children’s series and co-wrote THE ARMY OF FROGS trilogy which became a Netflix animated series—for which he and Lee wrote the screenplays. He is also the author of two adult WWII thrillers. And as Joel Dane, he wrote the CRY PILOT science fiction series, along with the science fiction podcast, MARIGOLD BREACH that starred Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto.
LEE NICHOLS is the author of five chick lit novels including the bestselling TALES OF A DRAMA QUEEN and HAND-ME-DOWN. She’s written the HAUNTING EMMA series for young adults, which is currently optioned for TV and co-wrote the animated Netflix series, THE ARMY OF FROGS.
Lee and Joel met in college and have lived together more years than they have not. They currently reside in Santa Barbara with two cats named Earl and Betty and have one son who pretends to be learning something while away at college. After collaborating on roughly thirty books together for both children and adults, they finally sat down to write The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective, their first mystery.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2025 Cloak and Dagger
- 2025 Craving the Cozies
- 2025 Cruisin' thru the Cozies
- 2025 Goodreads RC
- 2025 Medical Examiner Mystery RC
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