Review: Mum’s the Word by Kate Collins

First line: Most people hate Mondays.

From the back cover: I don’t meddle, honest! But can I help it if my nose for injustice is as keen as my green thumb? Now I, Abby Knight, law school dropout, am the proud new owner of Bloomers, my hometown flower shop. I’m devoted to making my business grow, but I’m no shrinking violet if someone needs my help to right a wrong – even if that person is already dead…

So maybe Abby’s life isn’t the bed of roses she was hoping it would be. She adores her job, but a new low-cost competitor is killing her profits – and a black SUV just rammed her vintage Corvette in a hit-and-run. Determined to track down the driver, she accepts the help of hunky ex-cop Marco Salvare. But their budding relationship is threatened when the trail turns deadly. Now Abby is caught in a tangle of menacing phone calls, police corruption, and murderous road rage. If she’s not careful, the next flower arrangement might be for her own funeral…

My thoughts: This is the first book in Kate Collin’s Flower Shop Mystery series. While it was a quick read, with each chapter leaving you hanging and wanting to read more, the overall storyline felt a little lacking. Abby Knight has two loves in her life – her new flower shop, “Bloomers,” and her vintage Corvette. Having just parked the car and heading to the shop, she is stunned when a man running out of an alley jumps into his black SUV and rams her car. Things turn interesting when Abby learns of a murder in a nearby apartment building, which happened just before Abby’s car was hit. Could the killer be the person who hit her car? Abby thinks so. Now set on solving this murder, despite all the threats she’s getting, Abby takes things into her own hands. Known for sticking her nose into things that don’t concern her, she gets herself into quite a few hairy predicaments and while there always seems to be help in the right place at the right time, it all seems a little too predictable and at times, she seems a little too oblivious to the danger she is in. My other disappointment with this book is that there were no tips or advice surrounding the flower shop – that is one of the reasons why I love reading cozies and one of the reasons I picked this one up in the first place. I definitely have a black thumb when it comes to gardening/keeping house plants alive and I thought this book might offer some fun tips about flowers/plants. I was bummed to see this was not the case. I’m not sure this is a series I will be continuing.

(I borrowed this book from the library.)