Ivy is a Weed by Robert Roseth

Ivy is a Weed by Robert Roseth is the story of Jeremy Ronson (recently deceased) and the insatiably curious PR Director of the university, Mike Woodsen, who believes that Ronson’s death by falling out of a window is just not all it’s made out to be.

Surely a person can’t just fall out of a window? That is Mike’s take on the incident. Even after the police rule the death accidental, Mike feels the need to solve the mystery. So armed with, well, not much at all, he sets about finding out what kind of man Jeremy was and why or who could have done this. There is definitely something fishy abut Jeremy’s appointment at the university, but no one seems to want to talk about it. Curiouser and curiouser . . .

The style of writing in this story immediately drew me in as it borders on the snarky and you are not bogged down with flowery descriptions. Mike’s journey to get to the truth leads you to an inside look of the mechanics of marketing a university and the egos that go along with it. The emails being traded back and forth where the tone goes from overly professional to downright sarcastic had me laughing—I mean, who hasn’t been there? I did find, however, that the journey was extremely drawn out and tended to be repetitive as the same kind of questions had to be asked of people over and over. The blurb did warn that the conclusion that Mike comes to is absurd yet logical, but I didn’t think it would arrive as it did. Mike was questing, questing, questing and then BAM—game over and theory offered. It just seemed so sudden and condensed after all he went through to get there.

There are scenes of a sexual nature and swearing so this must be taken into consideration when choosing this book to read. Overall, I enjoyed it and the base story and writing style as well as good editing made it a fun read. Ivy is a weed—an apt name for what happens under the shiny surface.

Thank you to Reedsy Discovery for the opportunity to review the book...