This is really more a 3 1/2 stars for me, as it was a great story but felt sort of disjointed to me instead of flowing easily like all the rest of her books did. The ending was dramatic, and sad but ultimately true to the overall tone of the series. Good mysteries within the plot as well. ( )

After multiple recommends to use an Earlene Fowler title for our libraries' Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we finally used one of her titles -- Delectable Mountains -- for one of our group discussions. I enjoyed this one quite a bit -- it's a middle-of-the-road mixture of cozy and police procedural, and falls right in the middle of the long-running series featuring Benni Harper, and set in a small California community. The characters are all well-defined, even if the mystery itself is a bit predictable. Benni doesn't stand out as a busy-body, as many "amateur sleuths" do -- her involvement in the mystery seems reasonable, and I found myself liking her as a character very much. I recommend this series to anyone who's a fan of such authors as Carolyn G. Hart -- strong sense of place, and character-driven storyline. Enjoy!

Originally reviewed for my local library's website: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/srec/staffrec12-02.htm ( )

Benni Harper series - always fun to read. ( )

A cute mystery series involving quilts.

Benni Harper, wife of police Chief Gabe Ortiz in San Celina finds herself helping her granma Dove direct the children of the Chruch in presenting a musical play based on Pilgrim's Progress. As the children learn their lines, and progress toward the Delectable mountains in the play, the church custodian is murdered during one of the rehearsals. A small girl is the only witness (or is she?), Gabe's long-lost cousin Luis suddenly appears in town, an old beau starts getting too cozy, a priceless violin is stolen from the Catholic mission in town, and Benni, (smart girl our Benni) begins to think there may be one too many coincidences in all of this. This is the first of this series I've read, but the plotting, setting, and characters certainly have me going back to search for earlier ones. ( )