As Abby skulks out, she realizes the two professors no longer have power over her and returns to Puffer’s office to retrieve the bloom. When she walks in, she finds Reed sitting behind Puffer’s desk with a pencil through his neck. Now Abby’s a suspect in Reed’s murder, and everyone knows bad things come in threes, but she can’t imagine what could be worse than being a murder suspect, unless it’s being a murderer’s target.

Abby and hunky boyfriend, bar owner Marco Salvare, start looking into who might want Reed dead, or if Reed was the intended target or if he was in the wrong chair at the wrong time. Abby follows a trail of hate and suspicion through the law school as well as jealousies over tenure and clerkships. She also turns her attention to the company Reed was doing legal work for and finds a string of people who were angry with the company practices of testing cosmetics on animals. While dealing with being a suspect, Abby is also having roommate troubles. Her recently married cousin showed up on her doorstep while she should have been on her honeymoon. Now Jill, who has a reputation of leaving men at the altar and claims to have been the one stranded this time, has taken over Abby’s apartment for her fashion business. Abby needs to get to the bottom of this, though if she’s spending the next thirty to life in jail, there will be more room in the apartment for Jill.

While this entry is not as memorable as others, Abby is still an enjoyable heroine, full of spirit and spunk. Her odd-ball mother and wacky cousin add interest, as do her two shop assistants, complete opposites of each other. A tenacious reporter and a series of pet-napings add to Abby’s stress. The murderer is fairly easy to guess, though there are two possible motives to keep readers guessing a while.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry