Monday, December 03, 2007

Mystery Book Review: A Rose from the Dead by Kate Collins

Mysterious ReviewsMysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of A Rose from the Dead by Kate Collins. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

A Rose from the Dead by Kate CollinsBuy from Amazon.com
A Rose from the Dead by Kate Collins
A Flower Shop Mystery with Abby Knight

Signet (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-22241-5 (0451222415)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22241-1 (9780451222411)
Publication Date: December 2007
List Price: $6.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): Abby Knight is attending the Midwestern Funeral Directors Associations regional convention, where the associations intensely disliked chairperson is found dead in a locked casket, her signature rose missing from her hair. Abby's determined to find out who loved the victim—and who loved her not.

Review: Florist Abby Knight continues her amateur sleuthing in A Rose from the Dead, the 6th delightful mystery in this series by Kate Collins.

Never one to turn down an opportunity to drum up business for her flower shop, Abby agrees to share a booth at a local convention for funeral directors. When the organizer, Sybil Blount, a flamboyant and eminently dislikable woman who always wore her signature red rose, is murdered and found, appropriately enough, in a casket, the police suspect Abby's friend Delilah. Of course Abby finds this unacceptable, and with the help of Marco, her ex-cop, ex-Army Ranger boyfriend, she follows her "gut feeling" about who might have killed Sybil. But will her pointed questions help identify the murderer, or will she simply set herself up to be next?

Despite, or maybe in spite of, the venue of the story, Collins introduces a considerable amount of (sometimes dark) humor into A Rose from the Dead. An early scene where Abby walks into an upright casket painted to look like a telephone booth, and is promptly locked inside as a prank by the sons of a local businessman, is very humorous. Then there's Angelique, a harpist, owner of Music for the Soul, who is available to play music at a funeral written from the soul of the dead. There are several more eccentric characters, all of whom seem perfectly suited for this light-hearted mystery, who add a great deal of diverting pleasure for the reader.

Even with the fun and laughter there is still a murder to be solved and Abby with her "gut feeling" is up to the task. A Rose from the Dead is entertaining from start to finish.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of for contributing her review of A Rose from the Dead and to Kate Collins for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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