Dearly Depotted (Flower Shop Mysteries, No. 3)

I've now read all the books in the Abby Knight Flower shop Mystery series and all are well crafted, intriguing little mystery stories. The plot lines are realistic and easy to follow - yet complicated enough to keep you guessing. I never figure out the "who done it" - in these books - a good sign of a well written mystery. Nice, light reading that will entertain and keep you guessing - I love this series!

I just finished Dearly Depotted by Kate Collins, my first time reading this author. I found the book to be a great read and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys mysteries with humor and a bit of "spice". I look forward to finding out more about the protagonist's main interest, besides flowers, Marco and the rest of her crazy family. Ms. Collins does a good job keeping things together and giving the reader a surprise ending. I have ordered more of her books and I recommend you do the same. One recommendation; lose all the carnations - too cheap and most people prefer more exotic flowers(just a suggestion)from one florists to another.

Dearly Depotted takes up where the previous Slay It with Flowers left off, with Abby busy with her cousin Jillian's wedding and Trudee DeWitt's 4th of July extravaganza--all on the same day. And of course things go wrong. There are pink instead of red carnations, a groomsman with a sprained ankle, and a wandering grandmother. To top it off, she has to wear The World's Ugliest Bridesmaid Dress™ in front of the hunky Marco. But all that tends to pale next to finding another dead body when Abby goes looking for the groom's missing grandmother. Abby had promised her friend Grace to stop meddling in murder, but when Grace's new boyfriend turns out to be the prime suspect, Grace reluctantly asks for Abby's help. This series is a fun blend of clever mysteries and an engaging and quirky cast of characters that just get more interesting with each book. I'm looking forward to the next, and hoping this will be a good long series.

After flunking out of law school, Abby Knight buys Bloomers, a New Chapel, Indiana flower shop from the original owner Lottie who sold the store when her husband's medical bills nearly forced them into bankruptcy. For the Fourth of July weekend, one of Abby's clients ordered begonias in red, white, & blue but the supplier sent pink carnations forcing Abby to spray paint them red. She is also the bridesmaid at her cousin Jillian's wedding, the same relative who stood up four husbands-to-be. Abby makes sure that her cousin goes through with their wedding but after the nuptials, she finds a dead body in the gazebo. The dead man is the father of Melanie's child (jillian's cousin) who had a fight with Melanie's father. Instead the police arrest the boyfriend of Abby's assistant because he threatened the victim after he discovered he was embezzling from his company and has a record that says he murdered someone in Texas. Abby sets out to prove he is innocent even though it puts her life in danger. Dearly Depotted is an exciting who-done-it because there are so many suspects who had reasons to kill the victim that readers will become absorbed in the story and will finish in one sitting. The heroine is loyal to her friends and is determined to find a suspect other than Richard while she is trying to figure out if her friend Marco who she is attracted to is ever going to take her out. Kate Collins' amateur sleuth tale is original and charming with so many unexpected twists that readers will have a hard time trying to figure out who the murderer really is Harriet Klausner