Book 32, 2025

[chez_jae]

Dearly Depotted by Kate Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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I only had a small portion of my “work” book left to read, so I brought it home Friday and finished it this weekend. The book was Dearly Depotted, which is the third “Flower Shop” mystery by Kate Collins. The main character is Abigail “Abby” Knight, who owns and operates a floral/gift shop called Bloomers.

Abby has several hats to wear at her cousin, Jillian’s, wedding: bridesmaid, florist, and now she’s been tabbed with keeping an eye on the groom’s grandmother. When Grandma Osborne doodles off, Abby tracks her down to the gazebo outside the reception, where she stumbles across a dead body. The victim is Jack Snyder, who got into a fight with another wedding guest earlier and was ousted, and who apparently returned. Since Snyder had no shortage of enemies, the police are looking at several suspects, including the gentleman friend of Abby’s employee, Grace. Grace implores Abby to help clear Richard’s name, and Abby reluctantly agrees. Now she’s following up on leads, questioning other guests, and trying to pry information out of the police and the county prosecutor. At least Marco, an actual PI, has agreed to help. The fact that he’s easy on the eyes is simply an added bonus.

While I have to admire Abby’s pluck and enthusiasm, she sure does some stupid things. It’s a wonder no one murdered her while she was investigating. Both Jillian and Abby’s mother are complete ditzes, and I wanted to knock their heads together. Characters were three-dimensional, including new/transient ones, and the plot progressed quickly. It would have been nice to see Abby doing less investigating and more living/working.

Favorite lines:
♦ My cell phone rang. JILLIAN CALLING, it said, which could only have been worse if it had been Satan on the line.
♦ Her golden eyes gazed out at the world with a look of keen intelligence, belying the SPACE FOR RENT sign behind them.
♦ “If she were wound up any tighter her brain would squeak.”
♦ “If it isn’t New Chapel’s handsomest deputy prosecutor, and if you don’t believe me, ask him.”
♦ “Morgan is so conceited, he’s jealous of his own reflection.”
♦ I was so far from smooth I could have sanded the bark off a tree.

Enjoyable, and interesting enough that I couldn’t wait the weekend to find out how it finished. Four stars.