Reap a Wicked Harvest: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Janis Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 2004 | Series: Gardening Mysteries

In River City, Missouri, the "wedding of the year" is causing florist Bretta Solomon one headache after another. Bretta and a few other River City business owners have been hired by a newcomer to this small Midwestern town to throw an unforgettable party for Evelyn Montgomery's daughter, and Evelyn wants every lavish detail to be perfectly done. Bretta; Oliver, the landscaper; Sonya, the wedding coordinator; Claire, the beautician; Dana, the caterer; and Kasey, the photographer; are all being driven nuts by Evelyn's last-minute, over-the-top demands.

Furthermore, during the week leading up to the wedding, Bretta's estranged father shows up for a "surprise" visit and moves himself into her house. And as if these two events alone weren't enough, the enigmatic Bailey Monroe, a DEA agent Bretta met during a previous adventure, also has arrived in town claiming a desire to get to know her better. It's shaping up to be quite a week.

But just when she thinks things can't get any worse, two wedding workers die suspiciously on the same day, and Bretta can't help but think there's something more sinister in the air than love and marriage. It's up to Janis Harrison's delightfully determined sleuth to figure out just exactly what's going on before the big day.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the Missouri Ozarks, Harrison's fifth accomplished cozy (after 2003's A Deadly Bouquet) to star widowed florist Bretta Solomon offers an ingenious puzzle, well-drawn, credible characters and loads of orchid lore. When Bretta's father, Albert McGinness, finds the bloody body of lab assistant Marnie Frazier, her neck pierced by a metal plant marker, on the lawn of greenhouse owners Dan and Natalie Parker during their Customer Appreciation Day Celebration, Bretta once again turns amateur sleuth. Realizing that the victim had been looking for something in the greenhouse records, Bretta asks herself, "What had Marnie known or suspected that made her a threat?" The disappearance of a number of women who left Parker Wholesale Greenhouses after short-term employment further complicates the suspenseful plot. Sexy Bailey Monroe, the elusive next-door neighbor who played an important role in A Deadly Bouquet, makes a welcome return, while Albert proves an irritating but surprisingly helpful self-appointed detective. If Bretta's reflections on her late husband verge on the mawkish, she remains an appealing heroine with whom readers can readily identify.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

For a nursery, Parker Greenhouse is not what one would call a nurturing environment, especially as far as the young, female employees are concerned. In the midst of a festive garden tour, the body of Parker's newest research assistant is discovered lying in a pool of blood, a murder that prompts floral designer-turned-detective Bretta Soloman to dig deep into the garden center's past to unearth the killer. Her investigation yields a disturbing harvest when she discovers that three other young women had left the company under suspicious circumstances. Turns out the greenhouse is a fertile environment for more than just plants: the girls were pregnant, unwitting victims of a baby-selling ring whose lust for lives has deadly consequences. With more twists and turns than a creeping vine, the intriguing plot puts Bretta, her family, and employees directly in the killer's path. In this perennially blooming series, Harrison's hardy heroine stalks the killer with the skills of a seasoned sleuth as she entertainingly reveals gardening's dirtier side. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (January 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312322836
• ISBN-13: 978-0312322830
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,170,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wicked, March 9, 2004

By 

Eileen Denny - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reap a Wicked Harvest: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite, January 28, 2004

By 

Sharon (Grove City, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reap a Wicked Harvest: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever emotional story, March 3, 2004

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Reap a Wicked Harvest: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.