A Rose From the Dead

By Kate Collins
First published by Obsidian, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First printing, December 2007

Abby Knight is the owner of Bloomers Flower Shop. She shares an apartment with her best friend, Nikki, and she dates PI hottie Marco Salvare. How does a florist get involved in a criminal investigation? In this episode of the Flower Shop Mysteries (#6 of the series), Bloomers has a booth at a funeral directors' convention. A murder occurs and the police suspect Abby's friend, Delilah Dove.

Throwing herself full tilt into the investigation to clear her friend's name, Abby gets herself mixed up with twin pranksters, an eco-warrior who believes in "green" burials, and a harpist who likes to record the sound of departing souls. Of course, Marco is there every step of the way.

I like the way Collins always plays Abby and Marco off each other - the banter is realistic and you can see their love lives progress throughout the series.

While Abby's escapades usually take place around the court house square, this book takes place mostly at the funeral directors' convention. Collins manages to make a convention about death an interesting place to be and some well placed jokes and puns about the funeral industry in general brought a smile to my face.

A good plot with some interesting twists, lots of fun along the way, and another murder solved by Abby Knight (or was it Marco?).