The third mystery to feature Missouri florist Bretta Solomon, widow of Deputy Sheriff Carl Solomon, proves a less fruitful offering than its predecessors (Roots of Murder
and Murder Sets Seed). Bretta travels to nearby Branson, a small Ozarks town, to attend the first Show-Me Floral Designers' Competition and Conference. After checking in at her hotel, she finds a letter from some friends of Carl's, Vincent and Mabel McDuffy, stuck under her door, asking her to "right a terrible wrong." She tries to contact the McDuffys, but the couple has disappeared and a newspaper article leads her to think they may be murder victims. Add to this mystery spiteful attacks on competition contestants, and the situation is ripe for Bretta to jump in and investigate. What does the attractive man with the butterfly group have to do with all this? And why does he, a guest at the hotel, answer the phone at a local business? Though the plot is basically sound, Bretta lurches willy-nilly from episode to episode without continuity or logic, occasionally guided by the voice of her late husband, who still speaks to her in moments of stress. There's a large cast of secondary characters, stereotypical and tiresome, about whom it's difficult to get concerned. Harrison brings off a surprise ending with élan, but the story has already gone to seed. (Nov. 12)
