Night of the Living Dandelion
A Flower Shop Mystery, No 11
Kate Collins

Penguin
April 2011/ ISBN 978-0-451-23301-1
Mystery/Cozy/Amateur sleuth
Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

Florist extraordinaire Abby Knight is happily engaged to the man she adores, Marco Salvare. Yet before she can even begin to think about flowers for her own wedding, she’s not only sprained an ankle, her fiancé is being put back on active military duty, his friend who has suddenly appeared in town might also be a vampire and a body is found drained of blood! What else could go wrong?

Author Kate Collins has made a nifty segue into the vampire themes of popular culture with this book yet has retained the integrity of the series as a fun cozy mystery. Kudos to Kate! I’ve been enthralled with the Flower Shop Mysteries from the beginning and am so pleased with this latest entry.

If you love a good whodunit, enjoy the small town coziness, have even a tiny urge to relate to the vampire trend, and enjoy a book that makes you smile, laugh, worry for the protagonist and her friends and family I can guarantee that you will be so happy to read this book that you’ll smile from your eyes to your toes.

The introduction of a new character, and one out of character (so to speak) for an existing mystery series can be tricky to say the least. Yet the author has done a fantastic job of bringing in someone new in a seamless enough transition that it is refreshing and it only later dawned on me that Vlad, who may or may not be a vampire (you’ll have to read this for yourself to decide), shook the series into a new place before there was even a floral scented whiff of it becoming wilted.

Does Abby find the true murderer? What happens to Marco back on active duty? Vlad- is he or isn’t he? And when it comes to Abby’s over-the-top cousin Jillian, you’ll have to read it to believe it!

Great book for mystery readers, vampire-genre readers, flower lovers, and those who love a romance that tugs at your heart strings. Night of the Living Dandelion is a freshly cut stem from a well branched series.

Reviews of other titles in this series

Mum's The Word #1
Slay it with Flowers #2
Dearly Depotted #3
Snipped in the Bud #4
Acts of Violets #5
A Rose from the Dead #6
Shoots to Kill #7
Night of the Living Dandelion #11
To Catch a Leaf #12
Nightshade on Elm Street #13
Seed No Evil #14