Read 100 pages - gave it a good try. It was too cliche and cutesy esp. with regards to the romance of Marco and Abby. Won't read further not the series.
( )

To Catch A Leaf is the twelfth book in the A Flower Shop Mystery series.

Things are great in New Chapel and Abby is feeling great as she has been able to announce her engagement to her hunk Marco. She is looking forward to letting everyone at Bloomers, her flower shop, know the good news.

Once at work, Grace, one of workers, needs to change her lunch hour to visit a elderly friend. So at lunch time Grace head to see her friend Constance Newport, a very wealthy resident of New Chapel. Soon Grace is calling Abby to tell her that Constance is laying at the bottom of the stairs dead. Grace feels sure that this wasn't an accident asks if Abby and Marco will look into the matter.

Of course the police wonder why this is necessary as it appears that she simply fell down the stairs. Add to this that after the will is read, it is learned that after a few gifts are made, the bulk of the estate goes to Constance's cat and Grace will become guardian of the cat and estate. When an art appraiser comes in he finds that several pictures are forgeries. And the cat is also missing.

But the house is full of suspects, that are also her children. There's the son, whose goal in life is to hit it big at the horse track, a daugther, the aspiring artist, whose is seeing a an art professor who has ben involved with some missing paintings, the daughter in law who find things to amuse herself with while her husband is off at the track, or maybe it is the grandson who is the only one that has a job.

But Abby and Marco sift through all the clues and find the murderer before Grace is indicted by a grand jury.

Abby is even able to come to agreement with her future mother-in-law about the bridal shower. Something that was bothering her as much as Grace being charged with murder. ( )

To many suspects to pinpoint the culprit! ( )

A very good addition to a series that got steadily better with each book. I still think her cousin is way more annoying than entertaining - nobody is truly that stupid. But the cast of characters are fun and the plot was good - enough red herrings to keep me from guessing until the end. I'm looking forward to the next one. ( )

Each of us has, according to his lights, an idea of what a good book to be. This one has many faults, but you know what, I don't want to pile on the criticisms onto a story that did entertain me. Let me just say that this is the first cozy mystery to dare slip in a paranormal element. It is confirmed now, that Kate Collins doesn't know herself what defines her main character. Abby here is mean to quite a few people, but she is kind towards a pretty cowardly and sneaky person. So you see, I have listed some faults, but there are more of them. I just want to end by saying that the entire series is worth reading and now that I'm nearing, at the time of writing, the end of the series, I'm at a loss for choice. ( )