Delectable Mountains: 6

Earlene Fowler has done it again! In my book (no pun intended), she is fast setting the standard for amateur sleuth series. She has a way of being provocative without preaching, touching without being overly sentimental, and making readers want to come back again and again. This is one of the best in the series.

This installment of the Benni Haper series is the best in a long while. The author has found her stride again and Benni is in top form this time around. I loved revisiting the characters and could not put this one down. An awesome read for fans.

This was another great offering from Earlene Fowler. The ending was a total shocker for me...always a good thing in a mystery! The characters were just wonderful - the little girl, Angelina is so sweet. I was actually hoping that she'd be a recurring character, but it looks like she won't. But the characters and plot were fantastic as always! Definitely worth a read - and of course you need to go back and read all the ones before it!

Earlene Fowler's Books stand out because of the relationships of her characters. This book gives you so many insights into her regular cast of characters that this alone is worth the read, but this book really surprised me. I had several things figured out pretty closely and then she threw me completely. By the end I found myself tearing up on the plane as I read the end of the book. Hud, Gabe, everyone else show us new facets of their characters and the new characters are the keys to a lot of this. One character I really hope to see more of in up coming books. The mystery is a good one, it held a surprise I didn't see coming but as always, the real gift of these books is the time spent with characters who have become like friends over the years. This was a great addition to a wonderful series. I won't go over the plot here because other reviews will and I don't want to know that much before I read it, just if it was a good read, this is a very good read.

In San Celina, California Benni Harper has her hands full as the wife of the chief of police, curator of the local folk art museum, attending two church committees and being a participant for the heritage walk. Yet when her grandmother Dove asks her to help put together the children's church musical of Pilgrim's Progress she is unable to tell the woman who raised her no. At the same, Benni has unexpected company when her husband Gabe's cousin, Luis, drops in unexpectedly. Surprisingly, Benni has life under control until she finds the dead body of the church custodian Walt Adams. She notices immediately he was murdered by blunt force trauma to the head and nobody knows why the man who was kindness itself was murdered. Shortly thereafter, a valuable violin that is exhibited in the church is found to be a forgery. The original instrument is worth over a million dollars. Between the robbery and the murder Gabe has his hands full with Benni conducting her own parallel investigation because she thinks the two crimes are linked. Little does she know that before the perpetrators are revealed, she will put her own life at risk to save the innocents who are in harm's way. Earlene Fowler has written another exciting Benni Harper mystery but DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS is extra special. Readers, used to seeing Benni's thoughts, get inside the psyche of Gabe who must cope with two major crimes, a hostage situation, his wife's sleuthing, and the volatile relationship that exists between him and his cousin. The mystery is very cleverly designed so that it is impossible to figure out what is really going on even though there are solid clues sprinkled throughout the exhilarating storyline. Harriet Klausner