REAP A WICKED HARVEST

Bretta Solomon discovers that even the most careful gardener can’t avoid the occasional weed when her father finds a corpse planted among the verbena at the Parker Wholesale Greenhouse.

Just because her budding romance with Bailey Monroe is on hold while he tries to reconnect with his 30-something daughter Jillian doesn’t mean florist Bretta (A Deadly Bouquet, 2002, etc.) has to stay home picking petunias. Instead, she decides to help sheriff Sid Hancock investigate the murder of Marnie Frazier, a young lab assistant who’s managed to get herself killed smack in the middle of Dan and Natalie Parker’s annual Customer Appreciation Day. For once, Sid doesn’t kick up a fuss. Closing the case will help his reelection campaign. Besides, Bretta’s longtime relationship with the Parkers puts her in the perfect position to find out why Jake Miller left his Amish roots to work for a commercial grower and whether bookkeeper Irma Todd is interested in more than maintenance man Harley Sizemore’s 401k. She even leaves her dad in the capable hands of housekeeper DeeDee while she stays with distraught Natalie. It’s there that Bretta finds a pile of personnel folders that Marnie had been perusing shortly before her untimely demise and realizes that there’s more buried at the Parker Wholesale than just Dutch bulbs.

Harrison keeps her eyes on the prize as she plants a touch of romance in a clever and well-clued puzzle.