A Rose From the Dead
Read A Rose From the Dead Online
Authors: Kate Collins
Tags: #Women Detectives, #Funeral Rites and Ceremonies, #Florists, #Mystery & Detective, #Undertakers and Undertaking, #Weddings, #Knight; Abby (Fictitious Character), #General, #Mystery Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #Indiana, #Fiction, #Detective and Mystery Stories; American
Acts of Violets
“Abby’s sharp observations bring laughs while the intriguing, tightly plotted mystery keeps you guessing.”
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Romantic Times
“A delightful, lighthearted cozy.”
—The Best Reviews
Snipped in the Bud
“Lighthearted and fast-paced, Collins’s new book is an entertaining read.”
—
Romantic Times
“It sparkles.”
—Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Dearly Depotted
“Abby is truly a hilarious heroine…. Don’t miss this fresh-as-a-daisy read.”
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Rendezvous
“Ms. Collins’s writing style is crisp, her characters fun…and her stories are well thought-out and engaging.”
—Fresh Fiction
Slay It with Flowers
“Upbeat, jocular…an uplifting, amusing and feel-good amateur sleuth tale.”
—The Best Reviews “What a delight! Ms. Collins has a flair for engaging characters and witty dialogue.”
—Fresh Fiction “You can’t help but laugh…. An enormously entertaining read.”
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Rendezvous
Mum’s the Word
“Kate Collins plants all the right seeds to grow a fertile garden of mystery…. Abby Knight is an Indiana florist who cannot keep her nose out of other people’s business. She’s rash, brash, and audacious. Move over, Stephanie Plum. Abby Knight has come to town.”
—Denise Swanson, author of the Scumble River Mysteries “An engaging debut planted with a spirited sleuth, quirky sidekicks, and page-turning action…delightfully addictive…a charming addition to the cozy subgenre. Here’s hoping we see more of intrepid florist Abby Knight and sexy restaurateur Marco Salvare.”
—Nancy J. Cohen, author of the Bad Hair Day Mysteries “A bountiful bouquet of clues, colorful characters, and tantalizing twists…Kate Collins carefully cultivates clues, plants surprising suspects, and harvests a killer in this fresh and frolicsome new Flower Shop Mystery.”
—Ellen Byerrum, author of the Crime of Fashion Mystery series “As fresh as a daisy, with a bouquet of irresistible characters.”
—Elaine Viets, author of the Dead-End Job Mysteries “This engaging read has a list of crazy characters that step off the pages to the delight of the reader. Don’t miss this wannabe sleuth’s adventures.”
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Rendezvous
“This story was cute and funny, had a good plotline which entwined a lot of interesting threads…an enjoyable read and a fine debut for this new mystery series.”
—Dangerously Curvy Novels “A charming debut.”
—The Best Reviews
Mum’s the Word
Slay It with Flowers
Dearly Depotted
Snipped in the Bud
Acts of Violets
A Flower Shop Mystery
AN OBSIDIAN MYSTERY
OBSIDIAN
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First published by Obsidian, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Linda Tsoutsouris, 2007
All rights reserved
OBSIDIAN and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-1012-1126-7
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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This book is dedicated to those genuinely caring men and women of the funeral industry who provide gentle guidance and understanding to grieving families, performing a service that most of us could not do.
A list of thank-yous can be entertaining or boring depending on how creative the author feels after laboring for months over dialogue, plots, characters, words, sentences, scenes, and chapters, not to mention the whole comma-versus-semicolon dilemma. With that said, I confess I had intended to write a clever limerick, weaving in the names of everyone who’d lent expertise, advice, wisdom, support, chocolate, et cetera. But after searching my remaining brain cells and coming up with some seriously horrendous duds (to wit: I have so many people to thank, but first I need a great big drank), I’m taking the easy route.
Thank you to Martin and Janice Moeller for their expertise on the funeral industry.
A big thanks to my sis, Nancy, for her excellent critiquing skills and for keeping my story on track.
Another big one to my hubby, Jim, for his legal proficiency, support, ability to make emergency runs for office supplies on a moment’s notice, and, of course, male viewpoint.
Yet another to my son, Jason, for designing Abby Knight’s very own MySpace site (www.myspace.com/ abbyknightflorist) and lending his musical talents to it.
Thank you, David Cergizan, for creating a virtual Bloomers that is exactly what I’d imagined. (You can see the photo on Abby’s site, above.)
Thank you, Sandi Kuntzmann, for helping with the Brit bits.
Thanks to my Spark
*
team: Karla, Kiersten, Annie, Val, and Britta, and their adviser, Dr. Bonita Dostal Neff, associate professor, Valparaiso University, for their creative input and hard work, even with finals looming.
As always, thank you to Barb for being my unofficial PR lady; to my daughters, Julia and Natasha, for their enthusiastic support and twentysomething vantage point, and to Bonnie, the dearest stepmom anyone could ask for.
Now, off to get that great big drank.