Things start to go awry for Paula almost as soon as she arrives in Connecticut:  smarmy Nick Vigoriti begins hitting on her, even though, in her opinion, there are far better choices to be Nick’s chosen target of affection; Lucy is inexplicably absent and her cell phone has gone silent, though given Lucy’s past history, Paula suspects Lucy may have hooked up with a hotty and has forgotten all about Paula; the corpse flower will not cooperate and bloom on schedule and then Nick is found dead behind the hotel with Paula’s business card in his pocket.

With nothing much to keep her at Titans, Paula arranges to interview the owner of the corpse flower and head for home.  Spending some time at the spa while waiting for her appointment, Paula begins to hear grumblings that all is not well at Titans and with Lucy still missing, Paula can’t help but ask a few questions and poke her nose where it doesn’t belong, angering someone enough to start following her, making her feel less than safe.  

Once again, Rosemary Harris has written a mystery with an action-packed plot and a no-nonsense heroine. Paula is immediately likable and only grows more so throughout the book. She is very self-reliant and independent, yet has good friends in Lucy and diner owner Babe and turns to them when she needs help, always watching out for her friends in return.  

The mystery is very well plotted and proves to be more complex than it first seems.  Each character serves a specific purpose and is neatly tied up, even the homeless man Paula gives a few dollars to is not forgotten in the end. A tightly plotted mystery with foreshadowing of Paula’s next adventure, The Big Dirt Nap will appeal to a wide variety of readers and will win the series a very large and loyal following.                                 

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry