This is the first book in the Claire Hanover series and I am looking forward to the rest of them. In this book, Claire and her husband Roger are having difficulties. Roger has become a workaholic trying to get ahead. Claire is lonely (her children are grown and gone) and she wants her husband to cut back on work and rekindle the romance they had years ago. When her friend Ellen invites her to attend aerobics classes with her, Claire agrees. The instructor, Enrique, is a handsome gigolo who tries to latch onto Claire with Ellen's encouragement. Claire agrees to a massage, and while that is happening in her master bedroom, someone breaks in and shoots and kills Enrique. When Claire gets the dead body off herself, she sees her husband standing there holding a gun. He is promptly arrested and charged with murder. Claire believes his when he says he did not do it and spends the rest of the book investigating the crime because the police think they have the guilty party and are not looking elsewhere. She ends up in all sorts of trouble. A great story with lots of surprises. ( )

Claire treats her husband like a God that can do no wrong. He's quite the dick, yet she can't imagine herself without him. She can stand up to cops and drug-dealers, but is the good little welcome mat to her King. ( )

This is a fun first novel. The mystery fooled me to the end, actually led me exactly where the author wanted me to be! There were a couple of *almost* TSTL moments (that's "too stupid to live") but she pulled it off because the protagonist was so scared the whole. I enjoyed this mystery and plan to read the next one when it comes out. Recommended. ( )

Rating: 3* of five

The Book Report: Mrs. Roger Hanover hasn't seen the love-light in her husband's eyes in ten years. Kids in college, money in bank, stupid expensive car she didn't want in garage of stupid expensive house she didn't want, and...not much else, just a home-based gift-basket-making business that she's run ragged by (thank goodness, something to do!). Her best friend, divorcée Ellen, leads her into the path of temptation by introducing her to hawt yoga instructor Enrique. That sets off a chain of events powering this entire first novel, as Enrique is murdered in Mrs. Hanover's bedroom in the course of an innocent, non-sexual (to Enrique's mild annoyance) massage...and Roger, standing in the doorway with the murder weapon, looks like the murderer.

She's all verschmeckeled, our intrepid heroine, what with being caught in what was once called a compromising position by the husband she loves even now, and whose apparent murder of the louche and rentable Enrique becomes the cause célèbre of Denver seems to her exceedingly unlike him...well, these facts force her, the publicly branded Cheating Wife, to stop the trial before it starts by discovering the real killer.

Which she does, much to her sorrow, and after making all sorts of bizarre new acquaintances, accusing old friends of heinous things, and fighting to show her husband she's not a cheater.

My Review: Enrique the latin lover/drug dealer. His Mexican spitfire girlfriend. A drug kingpin in a limousine.

Oh heavenly days, as my other-mother used to say, do stop now.

Adequate plotting, adequate dialogue, and a surprise killer get the book three stars, and the racist profiling is so blind, so not the point the author's making, that all it does is keep any more from being subtracted instead of making me rate it 1 star in irritation. This is a first novel, and is the first in a series, but I am not seeking the others out. ( )

Beth Groundwater introduces Claire Hanover, restless and underappreciated housewife, gift basket maker, and reluctant sleuth, in A Real Basket Case. Hanover’s gullibility drives her to make decisions that put her in danger and sometimes manages to save her. Her devotion to her husband and her motivation of saving her marriage are entirely believable and engaging in Groundwater’s capable hands. Groundwater writes all her characters with dimensions that show frailty, generosity, and the basic “humanness” shared by humankind. Readers will cheer for Hanover to succeed and commiserate with her failures. A Real Basket Case is the first in a series that promises to entertain readers who enjoy a lighthearted, engaging mystery for years to come. ( )