POPPY HARMON AND THE HUNG JURY

A private eye doing her civic duty gets embroiled in several nasty cases.

Retired TV star Poppy Harmon was forced to go back into business when her cheating husband left her a penniless widow (Poppy Harmon Investigates, 2018). Drawing inspiration from Jack Colt, PI, the well-received show in which she starred with Rod Harper, she’s launched the Desert Flower Detective Agency, whose staff includes Poppy and her 60-ish sidekicks, pushy Iris and retiring Violet, whose 12-year-old grandson, Wyatt, is a talented hacker who helps them after school. Finding that three golden age females don’t inspire confidence among their target clientele, they’ve hired handsome aspiring actor Matt Cameron, aka Matt Flowers, who does a bang-up job pretending to be a detective. Poppy’s serving on the jury in the trial of famous crooner Tony Molina, who stands accused of assaulting celebrity chef Carmine Cicci over an overcooked steak. Elected as jury foreman, Poppy persuades all but one of the jurors to vote guilty in the open-and-shut case, but the last juror, a young man named Alden Kenny, refuses to budge, hanging the jury and fueling Poppy’s suspicions that Kenny was paid off. Those suspicions are left to simmer when Rod Harper, Poppy's former co-star, hires the agency to find his missing daughter, Lara, a wild child who vanished after an argument. Her credit card has been used nearby at several places in the Coachella Valley, but when Lara turns up, she claims to have been on a spiritual journey to Nepal. Poppy must also deal with Rod’s renewed interest in pursuing a relationship with her and her daughter Heather’s release from prison after an involuntary manslaughter charge. When juror Kenny calls begging for her help, she goes to his house and finds him dead in his pool, renewing her interest in Tony Molina. The cases turn out to be related in a number of surprising ways.

An amusing cozy with quirky characters and a down-to-earth heroine with plenty of moxie.