Jill Churchill, The Accidental Florist

The Accidental Florist

Jill Churchill

Morrow, Mar 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 0060528451

In Chicago, police officer Mel VanDyne persuades his girlfriend Jane Jeffry and her pal Shelley Nowack to attend a self-defense seminar after the pair's latest harrowing escapade (see A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCREAM). However, before they complete the class, someone kills instructor Miss Welbourne with a lethal blow to her head.

Meanwhile Jane and Mel agree to marry. Though they prefer a quiet dignified ceremony, his mom plans the social event of the season while her mom plans a different social event of the season. Knowing that she holds the cards (just not the invitations), Jane fosters the war of the moms so she and Mel can somewhat get the ceremony they want though that begins to prove a dangerous strategy as strange bedfellows begin to emerge. Jane and Shelley, unable to heed Mel's advice to stay out of the homicide investigation, make tentative inquiries into who killed the women's safety expert while the culprit observes their every move just in case a groom needs to be widowed before he says I do.

The in-law war is amusing and fun to follow especially when someone else is caught in the middle as Jane's strategy seems so effective initially until the battling mommas begin to realize they are being played; watch out what happens to Jane once they know. The amateur sleuth investigation is never fully developed as it takes a back seat to the nuptials even as the bride and groom start their honeymoon on the case. Fans of the series will enjoy the sixteenth tale more for the wedding march than for the whodunit.

Harriet Klausner