Murder Sets Seed

Bretta Solomon #2

by Janis Harrison

The past six months have been tough on River City, Missouri's leading florist Bretta Solomon. Still getting used to being a fairly young widow and upset over having regained some of the weight she worked so hard to lose, Bretta is throwing herself into her latest the restoration of her new home, the historic Beauchamp mansion.

Bretta and her flower shop staff have been working overtime, decorating for the upcoming public open house. But a week before the big event, catastrophe the mansion's former owner, River City matriarch Cameo Beauchamp is strangled in a roomful of people during a momentary blackout. But that's not the worst thing. The murder site is Bretta's ballroom during a dinner-party preview of the house, and several of River City's upstanding citizens are present. Cameo had just accused--but not named-someone in the group of blackmail, and the manner of her death makes them all murder suspects.

Ignoring her promise to local sheriff Sid Hancock not to get involved in the investigation, Bretta becomes determined to discover what deadly secrets the blackmailer had uncovered and reveal Cameo's killer - before becoming the next victim.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Christmas

259 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 11, 2000

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

#2 in the series.
Bretta is a florist and a widow. She spends the proceeds from her husband's life insurance policy to buy a mansion from Cameo Beauchamp, and has plans to turn it into a boardinghouse. The sale of the mansion comes with many strings, including Bretta holding a dinner party for Cameo and Cameo's select group of invitees. Bretta plans to use his dinner party as a dress rehersal for her Christmas open house, where she hopes to sell many floral arrangements and Christmas themed items. At the gathering, while Bretta is showcasing her themed Christmas trees, Cameo tells the guests that she knows one of them has been blackmailing her, and she plans to tell all. Next thing the lights go out and when they come on again, Cameo has been murdered, strangled with a string of Christmas lights! (no spoiler here, that tidbit is on the book blurb on the back cover).

Bretta has to figure out who did it - after all, it happened in her new mansion so she's a suspect. And she's put all her money into this mansion, and all that is threatened. But every person at this dinner is a suspect!

There was a lot to like and some to dislike about this book. I admit not having read book 1 in the series, so some things about Bretta are made clear in the first book. Bretta is a 'heavy' woman which the author refers to continuously through the book. I felt that was a bit overdone. She also sems to show a lack of common sense in some instances (which I found surprising as a business woman).

However, on the other hand, there was a complexity to the story that kept my interest. The plot was interesting and I sure did not figure out who the murderer was. Now that was a surprise and it was pretty well done.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating is really 4.9 because I have a little quibble with the ending where I kind of lost track of who was related to whom. But the essential message was how much trauma a child experiences when there is separation from a parent and the separation is not fully understood. There are counterparts in the story between Bretta and others of the characters we encounter--but how they handle their traumas is entirely different.

The story involves a family of women, all named for gems, each in their turn taking charge of their generation and seeing that the next heirs are equipped to do their duty. Read that as an ominous sign that all is not well at the Beauchamp-Sinclair mansion which Bretta now owns--though the contract to buy the house came with certain provisos by the previous owner, Cameo Beauchamp-Sullivan, which did not seem all that onerous to Bretta until Cameo was murdered after revealing she was being blackmailed, knew who it was, and would make the blackmailer pay. Cameo's death is only the first--others follow, including a close call for Bretta.

One small thing I really liked was the author has a short paragraph near the end revealing what, exactly, is meant by the title, "murder sets seed." Most mystery titles are cutesy puns that have nothing to do with the theme of the story, especially this genre of cozy Christmas mystery. Except this one. But if your copy has a cover with poinsettias, it is not seeding poinsettias that we are concerned with here--it is another poisonous Christmas plant.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Florist, Bretta Solomon sets the stage for the grand opening of her B&B in the Beauchamp mansion, which she recently purchased from Cameo, the last of a long line of female Beauchamp family owners. What she didn’t buy, was the sordid mystery behind the women, but it appears to have come with the house, just the same.

A curt woman of age, Cameo, the night’s guest of honor, addresses the invited guests with virulence, revealing one of them has attempted to blackmail her. It’s a Clue game set-up and as expected, during the nights gala, the lights go out, as does Cameo’s last breath. All in attendance are suspect and the division begins.

This is a tightly written tale with good characters, believable dialogue and scenarios. All the makings for a good mystery. On to the 3rd in the series I go.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Town matriarch is murdered during Christmas party; all eleven attendees are suspects, including the servants. The hostess, widow Bretta Solomon, investigates although she is swamped with orders at her floral shop. Turns out the matriarch was hiding family secrets going back over a hundred years, and someone was threatening to expose her unless she paid hush money. But these slimey secrets have a way of destroying the whole family. Bretta herself must deal with her own family problems, including her weight, her estranged father, and her dead husband who still communicates with her to help solve crimes. Not for all tastes; equal parts murder mystery and personal problems.

[Laurie D'ghent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, light read with some unique little quirks. I would read more by Harrison.

[Joyce Himmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Nice twist at end. I enjoyed and will certainly read more in A Gardening Mystery series.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird families with multi-generational obsessions are not my favourite thing and the gem names seem to have been set right at the beginning of the family's settling in River City which seems odd. Bretta Solomon, recently widowed, has a flower shop which seems to be doing reasonably well, but small business requires constant attention and Bretta has been restoring a large house which she is hoping to use as a boarding house - an odd concept in this time period. She has made some unusual arrangements with the elderly woman from whom she bought the house and is hoping to have an open house to allow people to see the inside and also view the Christmas decorations Bretta has for sale. There is a dinner party ahead of the open house with guests invited at the request of Cameo Beauchamp-Sinclair, the former owner. The elderly woman announced that she has been blackmailed and during a bit of excitement including the inevitable power outage Cameo is found in her wheelchair strangled with a string of Christmas lights. There's a lot of very nasty weather, a falling through the ice, a faked traffic accident, Cameo's "lying in state" which surely applies to public people, leaving the rest of us to have a "viewing." Bretta is insecure because her father abandoned the family when Bretta was only eight. She has an employee whose grandmother will have nothing to do with her and a girl working at the house who is so controlled by her mother that she can barely speak, cannot use the phone, and is terrified of everything in the outside world. Couple that with a driver who has to give a lecture as answer to any question put to him, a cook-housekeeper who can't be polite to save her soul, and the voice of Bretta's dead husband advising her and you have a most disturbing group of characters. The elderly lawyer we meet briefly seems reasonable and the county sheriff would be if he relaxed a little, but River City seems to be full of very fragile psyches - either fragile or bullies. No, I didn't care for this book much and don't think I'll look out any more in the series, but I didn't give up on it. Came close a couple of times though.

[Kimberly Moses · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love finding a new mystery series..could not find the first book in the series at my library, so I picked up the second book in the series. Good writing, great characters and an interesting plot...I really enjoyed it, and will be reading through the series to see if it holds up the promise of the second book...

[Margaret]

It wasn't bad - I liked the character of Bretta and her florist job. Thought the naming of the Beauchamp sisters after gems was a bit on the cutesy side. It did seem realistic though that after 20+ years of marriage that Bretta would feel lost without her husband.

[JoAnne McMaster (Any Good Book) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read the first one yet, as this was on the library shelf so I grabbed it. Pretty good mystery and plot, but it seemed to 'drag' in the latter part of the book, (when it should have picked up).

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another series I hadn't gotten into...Hey, a florist heroine who has lost a hundred pounds and is putting some of it back on....I can relate. The story is complex enough to keep you interested without too many characters to make things confusing. I think I'll look for more from this author.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this book better than the first book I read in this series (which I think was actually the third in the series), but the writing still lags, and parts of the story just don't add up.


Actual rating: 2.5 stars.

[souffle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved its references to flowers and I was completely shocked at the ending

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Light

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this one beter than the first. Bretta has bought a historic mansion and is busy restoring it, but with the mansion come some strange requests and very unique people.

[Barb]

Fun "light murder mystery with a gardening/florist twist. Fast and easy.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading this series in order, one behind the other, and I feel the author has Bretta being a super woman detective and comes across very unbelievable. Although, I enjoyed reading them.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good weekend read, entertaining characters and plot to keep things moving.