Lilies That Fester

Bretta Solomon #3

by Janis Harrison

When Flower Shop owner Bretta Solomon leaves her hometown of River City, Missouri, and heads for a florist convention in Branson, she's surprised to find a letter from Vincent and Mabel McDuffy slipped under her hotel room door, begging for help. The McDuffys seem to know of Bretta's success as an amateur sleuth around River City, and that, coupled with their admiration for Bretta's late husband, a police officer, has inspired them to ask Bretta to find out what happened to their daughter, who died of a heart attack a few months ago.

The trouble is, Bretta can't find the McDuffys-after leaving her several messages at the hotel, they seem to have vanished. And although she's curious to track them down and find out exactly what they want her to do, she's got her hands full already running the design contest at the annual florist convention, coping with back-stabbing competitors and suspicious colleagues.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 8, 2001

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Indie florist, Bretta Solomon has partaken the duty of event coordinator for a florist convention held in a swanky hotel with minions to do her bidding. Things are running smoothly until ..

Finding an envelope inside her hotel room and then being handed a series of messages from the parents of their recently deceased daughter starts an uncharted course to an as yet unselected destination.

Too soon, injuries and deaths occur without reasonable intent. Bretta, and a couple unlikely, but most enjoyable sidekicks, sleuth about trying to find First the why and then the who. Add in a (excuse the timely pun) budding romance and things get enticing quite quick.

There’s too many surprises to give away by saying much more and I’d hate to spoil your fun, so I’ll just say this is an adventure you’ll enjoy and leave you to it.

[Elizabeth Wilson]

I have not read the first two books in this series, not sure if doing so would have changed how I felt about this book.

I think with work this could have been a good story, but too many poorly written characters, reptition of certain themes and some really toxic romance themes.

Will give the rest of the series a miss.

[Cindy]

Interesting setting on this one--I've never been to a convention, and since I only read about murders there, I might decide to stay home!

anyway, it was an interesting story with pretty good characters, but I think it could have been a lot better.

[Gail]

I couldn't get into this book. None of the characters interested me and the "mystery" seemed vague.

[Janis]

Nice little mystery.

[Laina]

I'm really enjoying this series and I think this is my favorite so far :)

[Karen]

I read the first third and the last third of this book. I skipped the middle entirely, and I didn't miss anything except maybe some frustration from dealing with the vagaries of the writing.