Review

For fans of:  Madelyn Alt

In just a couple of weeks, flower-shop owner Abby Knight is going the marry man of her dreams; she should be over the moon, right? Unfortunately, however, Abby’s under far more stress than the average bride-to-be. Business at Bloomers has been slow, her flower cooler just died, and the new security system she had installed cost far more than anticipated. Her fiancé Marco has been acting moody and distracted and refuses to explain why. And her mother is beside herself about the fact that the animal shelter at which she volunteers is thinking about changing their no-kill policy. 

Then, as if all of that weren’t enough, the director of said animal shelter is found dead and Abby’s mother is called in for questioning. Can Abby catch the real criminal and restore order to chaos before it’s time for her to head off on her honeymoon, or will the bad luck plaguing her business and her family curse her impending marriage, as well?

I don’t quite know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I became completely and totally addicted to Kate Collins’ Flower Shop Mysteries. These books are the literary equivalent of comfort food for me; Collins’ set pieces are warm and welcoming, her characters make for great company, and her stories have a way of sucking you in and banishing Real World Thoughts to the very back of your mind. Seed No Evil is the fourteenth entrant into the series, and I’m happy to report that it’s every bit as good as its predecessors and is the perfect thing with which to unwind after a hot, hectic summer day.

Abby has always been an incredibly winsome heroine – smart, caring, courageous, and loyal to a fault – but the love of animals she displays in this book, coupled with her dedication to saving them, makes her all the more endearing.  Marco not only adores Abby, but respects her and champions her at every turn, making him everything you could ask for in a series love interest.  And Abby’s neurotic cousin Jillian (who spends the duration of the book panicking over her pregnancy) is pure comedic gold, as per her usual.

Collins has done a marvelous job of crafting a whodunit that’s not only clever and complex, but that also strongly advocates for the adoption of shelter animals – an accomplishment for which she deserves no small measure of praise. The homeless cats and dogs featured in Seed No Evil feel every bit as real as Collins’ marvelously well-developed human cast of characters. And if the ending to Collins’ tale doesn’t reduce you to a puddle of happy tears, then I think there’s a very good chance you don’t have a soul.

Reviewed by Kat