Paula Holliday is a gardener for hire. She landscapes mansions, their smaller cousins and even smaller relations set outside front doors and local businesses. She also solves murders, but that’s not always her volition nor fault. Like a weed, she just happens to be in the wrong place at the right time.

When a well-to-do customer/friend asks Paula to go into business with her, all expenses paid, it seems a bit hard to believe. Then, when said friend is picked up as an 20 year escapee under alias, things start to get dicey. The husband, relying on Paula’s past accomplishments, asks for her help in finding out how his wife was found, the dice begin to roll, and not always in Paula’s favor.

Sleuthing her way into numerous threatening scenarios, she again uncovers the ills that threaten and gains another notch on her garden sheers. ( )

This series is fun. I like anything to do with gardening, and this character does not disappoint. Of course, she finds trouble wherever she goes when she is just trying to re-landscape someone's yard or help out a friend at a trade show. Fun characters and interesting locations make this series, and this book, fun for beach reading. Recommended. ( )

Can you say a murder mystery is likeable, I wonder? Well, I guess I just did. This is the first Rosemary Harris I've read, and it does make me want to seek out her earlier novels. Brash, witty, and very fast paced, it is populated by an assortment of colorful characters. Since I do street outreach, the seeming runaway, his girlfriend, the kid trying to make good...well, they tugged at my heartstrings overmuch. And I think another mystery writer might have been more dismissive...you know the sort: "okay, we need a body here, let's introduce a character and then have a murder". Harris doesn't do that, and it is a nice thing that she doesn't.
I'm an obsessed gardener, so I might have liked more obsessive garden chat, but even those who don't like to plunge their hands into compost will probably enjoy this one. The Epilogue is intriguing, who doesn't want to know exactly what happens to everyone? ( )

It’s always a good thing to discover a new series that you really enjoy. A while back, I reviewed the third Dirty Business Mystery, Dead Head by Rosemary Harris, I immediately picked up the first book, Pushing Up Daisies and made sure to keep my eyes open for new installments in the Dirty Business series. I devoured Slugfest on my recent vacation.

Paula Holiday left New York City for the peace and quiet of small-town Connecticut. She opened a landscaping business and she’s getting by, making friends with her neighbors, and occasionally stumbling across mysteries. Slugfest takes her back to NYC for The Big Apple Flower Show. An oddball local artist who produces sculptures from rusty metal pipes, old bicycles and other found items, is too much of a recluse to man a booth at the show, so Paula is selling sculpture and visiting her old haunts. Her plans for a peaceful week in the city get derailed when mysterious pranks — the so-called Javits Curse — get out of hand and bodies start turning up.

Slugfest is great addition to the series. It’s still Paula, but she’s away from her small-town neighbors, even if she’s still surrounded by flowers and plants. She tries to help out a couple of kids she meets at the show and ends up the new BFF of a mobster’s wife. There’s a killer on the loose and she’s being spied on by a Peeping Tom who criticizes her fashion choices:

(Note to self: permanently borrow red dress from Lucy. I will never be lonely as long as I’m wearing this. How did I get to be this age without knowing every woman needs a red dress?)

The twists and turns keep you turning pages, but what really makes this a fun read are the big personalities at the flower show. From the mobster and the high school kids to the elderly benefactress and the tough-as-nails security guard, these people are funny and sweet and sometimes a little scary. It made a great poolside read and I will definitely be looking for the next Dirty Business mystery.

For more reviews, check out my website, www.aliveontheshelves.com ( )

I got the chance to read and review Rosemary Harris’s fourth book in the Dirty Business mystery series. I have to say this book was so fun, lots of silliness, and a cast of the most colorful characters ever. Paula Holliday returns to be in a flower show helping to man an exhibit booth. The shenanigans that happen are just hilarious. I had not read any of her previous books, but will be doing so very soon. I think this book would be a great read for the summer on the beach. ( )