Reap a Wicked Harvest (A Bretta Solomon Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Not my favorite
Review: I love the character of Bretta Solomon but this was my least favorite book of the series. I missed her working in the flower shop and her antagonistic relationshiop with Sid. Perhaps I was just disenchanted with the storyline behind the murders and the heavy handed symbolism. I found it implausible how the killer wanted to reconcile the situation with Bretta when she first discovered who it was.

Rating:
Summary: Wicked
Review: Just finished reading "Reap a Wicked Harvest" and found it to be highly entertaining. Once again, the author kept me guessing who was the murderer. Not until the last of the book, did it all come together.The more Janis writes the better she gets. Janis keeps me coming back for more twisted murder tales. Bretta and her Dad, hopefully, will have more crimes to investigate together.Thanks for a grand time.

Rating:
Summary: Clever emotional story
Review: Nothing ruins a party like finding a dead body in the middle of it. That's the challenge facing widowed florist and amateur sleuth Bretta Solomon when she attends the "Customer Appreciation Day" festivities put on by her friends, Natalie and Dan Parker of Parker Greenhouse. The dead young woman, a recently hired employee at the greenhouse, has a sharp object in her throat and a cryptic note near her body indicating she had scheduled a meeting with someone.

Though the sheriff and Bretta have had their tiffs in the past over Bretta's snooping, this time Sid welcomes Bretta's help. He's facing a reelection campaign and wants this crime solved by whatever means possible. Also lending a hand is Bretta's father, who thinks it would be just dandy to open a father-daughter detective agency. But even without the encouragement, Bretta can't help herself, especially when a few clues just fall in her lap and the sheriff can't put two and two together. Soon it appears the victim had been doing some sleuthing of her own and died for her troubles.

This was a lovely who-dunnit peopled with interesting characters, richly drawn and each with problems and a history of his own. I didn't guess the solution, though the clues were there. The crime itself was a bit improbable--I believe the villain's goals could have been achieved with far less trouble and intrigue. But by the time it all came together at the end, I'd been so entertained I didn't care. A clever and emotional story.