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Pushing Up Daisies
The novel Pushing Up Daisies should indeed be 10 feet under.I would not recommend this book.

Great First In a Cozy Mystery series
I really enjoyed the characters the author is developing.Especially interesting is the funny relationship between the Paula and the police Sergeant O'Malley.I hope that the author will bring develop this relationship in future books.Also, the big-city friend Lucy is extremely funny.I was impressed by the author's gardening know-how and the way she utilized the information to keep the plot moving forward.Less impressive was her one-sided portrayal of the poor and abused Mexican day-laborers. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Fun to read but not up the level of her first book in this series
The author has continued on with some of her original characters - which is a big plus as I thought she had the makings of a good ensemble.

I could have wished for more of a development between the cop and the main sleuth but perhaps that will be in future installments. I was surprised and not pleased that the author left gardening out of this book.It is her "hook" and also seems to be her own personal experience and yet it is notably missing - unlike her first book.Once again, I felt the author invested too much time to a cause - this time Native American rights and the horror of the "gambling" income they receive.In her first book, it was the plight of Mexicans who are in this country illegally.Being preached at in a "cosy" mystery doesn't make for a fun read.Another nit is that the author focused on the homeless guy and on her client's husband and then dropped both like yesterday's news.I was looking for something a little more interesting and twisted from these references - perhaps some plot lines that were deleted in editing?

On the other hand, I do like this writer's style and her sense of humor.I was happy to visit some old friends from "Pushing Up Daisies" and just wished for a few more of these friends.I liked the addition of the "bikers" and hope to see them again in the future.I will certainly be looking forward to and buying more of her books and hope that someday I can start giving her 5 stars.
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Third in Dirty Business Holds Surprise for Paulaand Town!
Caroline Sturgis was one of Paula Holliday's clients--in fact, she was one of her most important clients who had also become a friend. She had been working with her for three years and had slowly been able to move Caroline's interests from impatiens, marigold and red salvia, into doing some interesting additional plantings. Now, as her children are getting older and Caroline has little to do, she was trying to talk Paula into a business partnership--she providing the money to buy Guido Chiaramonte's nursery, and Paula being the owner and front person. Dead Head by Rosemary Harris is the third Dirty Business Mystery and this time, Paula is even hired to be a private detective! You won't want to miss this one!

It had all started at Babe Chinnery's diner where Paula and she were discussing the use of false lamium in the planters in front, with Paula guaranteeing that a beautiful yellow would be added when the plant flowered. Paula spent a lot of time there and so it was not surprising that when Caroline, along with a number of other friends, stopped by and saw Paula was there, she came in to talk more about the purchase of the nursery.

But when Caroline was leaving, a deadheaded trucker driving back home stopped her and asked if he knew her. Caroline immediately left; she disappeared for days.

And then it was announced she had been arrested and taken to Michigan. The newspapers called her The Fugitive Mom!" And Caroline was not her name...

Caroline's husband is devastated and, seeks out Paula's help to try to find out what the truth was. She argued that she was not a private detective, but when he mentioned how much he would pay her, and knowing that Caroline wanted and needed her help, she agreed.

Starting with the basics, she found out what Caroline's real name was and then began to trace her teenage life. Because it had been as a teenager that she had been accused and found guilty of running a drug operation!" She was a high school senior cheerleader at the time; they gave her 20 years! And during a work release program, she had walked away and...had built a new life, a place in the community and many who couldn't believe the original charges were true!

But somebody was certainly on the trail and Paula was getting in the way as she tracked down the original trucker who had talked to Carolyn and went on from there to hopefully clear her friend's name as well as preventing her from going back to jail!

I must say that Paula does indeed make a great detective and she's even considering a change in career. But then again, she does seem to get into quite a bit of trouble and Babe and Lucy can't always be around to help! This whodunit has everybody under scrutiny, including a new priest to the community! One of the main characteristics in the books by Rosemary Harris, is the subtle throw-ins and one-liners that spark a smile or an outright chuckle in the middle of a serious scene. The overall package of these novels continuously results in a great read, and admiration for Paula, Babe and Lucy just keeps growing! I love these characters!



Book Received Via
BRH from Author

G. A. Bixler

Paula is the new Kinsey
I think Harris is destined for greatness, and if given time may surpass Grafton.Why?Like Kinsey, Paula's a realist.She a lone woman in the world, a thirty something woman.Unlike Kinsey, Paula is normal.She has friends, fun friends.Money is an issue because her main profession is seasonal.As a gardener, she's around people's homes and hangs out a the Paradise Dinner running into people.Things happen spontaneously, but she notices what happens and she cares.She isn't serious about being a PI, and so goes about it like an intelligent person just trying to help a friend.In doing so, we can relate to her, she's doing what we would do, and gets varied results, which can be humorous (See Dead Head for details).It will be interesting to see where Harris goes with this series, but I think she's got it!

Pretty good but
This book was pretty entertaining but it does something that I dislike in some mystery novels.The pace is good but everything is resolved in the last two chapters of the book which are very rushed.I prefer that it be more evenly paced and have some writing after the mystery is solved.

A Top-Notch Addition to a Strong Series
In Rosemary Harris's third mystery featuring gardening professional Paula Holliday, readers discover some real dirt and an illegal secret from one of the preppiest moms in town. The Dirty Business series combines humor, small-town personalities and gardening insights to delight fans of amateur sleuth puzzles.

Paula is trying to keep her gardening business and finances afloat during the fall, when many of her clients are scaling back due to their own money struggles. She is spending even more time than usual in her friend Babe's Paradise Diner, redoing the landscaping outside. The diner is Paula's shabby but friendly hangout, and it is threatening to go upscale with a new outdoor patio and a bevy of Main Street moms who now come in between taking their kids to lessons. One of them, Caroline, has been a friend and client of Paula's for a few years. She wants to back Paula in a new business venture: buying a nursery and garden design center. But Caroline does like to drink, and Paula is becoming nervous at the amount of liquor they put away at "business meetings." She is also wondering why Caroline does not seem to want to put her name on the papers.

The situation gets murkier when Caroline runs into a stranger at the Paradise. He says something to her, and she flees. A few days later, an anonymous tip to the police reveals that longtime escaped prisoner Monica from Michigan and Caroline are one and the same. Worse, everyone in town thinks Paula is the one who tipped off the police for a reward. Caroline's husband knows she did not do that, and hires Paula to find out who did and why. He just wants his wife and the mother of his children back, no matter what she did in her teens that landed her in prison for drug trafficking.

Paula is persona non grata in town now, hurting her business even more. Then the Paradise is broken into, and she begins to realize that all these things are connected and decides to find out what happened that uncovered Caroline's secret. The path leads her to interview several folks who have turned up at the diner lately, including two others who are suddenly interested in the old nursery --- the same one she and Caroline were going to buy.

Digging into Caroline's/Monica's high school past leads Paula into danger. Someone wants to stop her and get to the purported money that Caroline made off with all those years ago. Paula tries to work with the local police sergeant, who seems ready to take their easy flirtation to a new level.

Rosemary Harris continues to give Paula a great heart and voice with lots of humorous asides. Babe; Paula's co-sleuth and friend, Lucy; and even Caroline and her family are fun, quirky characters who still seem like realistic people. A scene in a local motel where Paula tries to hide Caroline and her husband with Lucy is laugh-out-loud funny. At times the mystery suspects get confusing as Paula herself tries to untangle the lies, but readers will be rooting for her in this strong series.

Read in one sitting
This is the third terrific read by Rosemary Harris. It is said that a book is like a garden carried inyour pocket. Well in this case the main character Paula is a gardener who likes to dig literally and figuratively. She is quick and witty and her escapades provide some laugh out loud dialogue. But note - there is a great story line and you will find yourself wondering who the unknown speaker is along with the proverbial whodunit question. I read it in one sitting and when you finish go buy the first two in the series.
Nina Mazzo, Lincoln, California ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (23)

Kickoff To Series Fun Read!
There are few cozy mystery series that I do not thoroughly enjoy. When you add a bit of humor, it is even more fun to read. If you agree with me, then I highly recommend you check out Rosemary Harris' Dirty Business Mysteries. I started right from the beginning with Pushing Up Daisies and quickly decided that I liked the main character, Paula Holliday, who owns her own small landscaping company.

I'll let you read how she left New York for a small town in Connecticut--and her best friend Lucy who is still there but visits often. Paula is still finding her place but was able to talk the president of the Historical Society into giving her the job of restoring Halcyon's Garden, which had just been endowed to them upon the death of the owner of a magnificent estate. Both of the last residents had been very old and had not been able to attend to the garden so extensive cleanup would be first, but there were garden rooms, a maze, a greenhouse and even a Herb Cottage that could once again be a beautiful center for the small town.

Winning the job was a tremendous opportunity for Paula, although it would not be a profitable one. Hopefully, it would lead to other jobs once the Garden would showcase her work. Not wanting to wait, she quickly drove out to the Garden and started to tour, making notes on what needed to be done, what Hugo, her assistant could do and what should be started first. By the time she had seen most of everything, she found herself in The White Garden and there she couldn't wait any longer, she started to dig! Was it fate that had her dig exactly there? For before very long, Paula had hit something hard. Discovering a box, she lifted it up and found a small object completely covered in cloths--but a tiny head dropped out and rolled across the garden, leaving Paula screaming and sitting on the ground.

Fortunately, there had been nobody to hear her; however, she knew what she had to do. Calling in the police and learning that the body had been a baby was "not" something that brightened her first day on a new job! One of the enjoyable relationships for cozy mysteries is the love-hate relationship between the amateur sleuth and the local police. So it wasn't surprising that Sgt. Michael O'Malley was prepared to either arrest her or send her packing away from the crime scene. But not before Paula got a few digs in about Springfield police comparing to that of Mayberry.

Everybody immediately assumed that the baby had belonged to one of the sisters who had owned the garden. So amidst the work taking place to restore the Halcyon's Garden, Paula began looking around and asking questions. When one of her competitor's is killed and her assistant Hugo is the prime suspect, Paula immediately goes into high gear to save her friend!

I had to laugh when Paula discovers that Anna, who is an unpaid office assistant, is also in love with Hugo! Kind of puts our amateur sleuth on the spot, doesn't it, missing what is there right under her nose...but it was fun to watch and even have the wedding as part of the book! I loved the characters and enjoy the relationships that are developing in the series...Now I'm on to second in the series, The Big Dirt Nap! But do start with Pushing Up Daisies--start at the beginning of this great series!


Book Provided Via
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G. A. Bixler

Grew on me instantly!
I'm not a gardener and probably wouldn't have thought to pick this up, but I'm so glad I did. Just ordered the next in the series. Daisies was so funny and the characters just quirky enough to be entertaining without the reader having to suspend disbelief. I must say, "I Love Lucy," Paula's best friend. Great, snappy dialogue. Splendid debut in a (I hope) long-running series.

A really fun book
For some reason I've never been much of a mystery reader, but that may change after reading Rosemary Harris' debut book. "Pushing Up Daisies" was a fun book to read for many reasons, not the least of which is the wonderful writing style of the author. The pace of both the writing and the story move along at a brisk clip, making for an intriguing story that builds to what I thought to be an entirely unpredictable yet credible climax. The book's main character is a delightful and energetic person whose persistent inquisitiveness drives the story line by bringing life to the personal interactions that are such a vital component of the book. In short, I enjoyed every page of "Pushing Up Daisies" and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment in this promising series.

A gardener's delight.
Yay!

I enjoyed this very much. Paula Holliday has left her job in television to live out in the "wilds" of suburban Southeastern Connecticut to start a landscaping business. After placing a ridiculously lowball bid for the work to restore the historical society's newest aquisition's gardens, she digs up more than was expected, and mystery ensues.

Great characterizations, unexpected twists (love Felix!), and, so satisfying- fantastic and horticulturally realistic gardening added up to a read I was sorry to finish.

I've already requested The Big Dirt Nap -the next in what I hope will be a long series.

Fast-Paced Gardening Mystery
Pushing Up Daisies (2008) introduces Paula Holliday, who has left her documentary filmmaking job in New York City for a quieter life in Springfield, Connecticut. To jumpstart her new gardening business, Paula talks her way into the job of renovating the gardens at an estate just willed to the historical society. Digging for soil samples the first day on the job, Paula uncovers the body of a baby that has clearly been buried for some time. When her friend and employee is arrested for the crime, Paula begins her own investigation into the past where she is sure the motive lies. Soon she is juggling a growing attraction for the local detective and a sexy Mexican laborer on top of garden chores. Gardeners will enjoy this fast-paced mystery full of garden lore.
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Harris_Rosemary.html ... Read more

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2nd in Series Great WhoDunIt!
There is only one flower in the second novel, The Big Dirt Nap, by Rosemary Harris--a corpse flower! It had gotten the name by its smell... When the police find Paula Holliday's business card in the pocket of a corpse and she explains that she is just here to do an article on the titan arum on display at the hotel, Detective Winters quips, "This should be right up your alley. You're in a dirty business and he's taking the big dirt nap." (p.16)

Paula Holliday was retching at the time...

Nick Vigoriti had maybe, sorta, kinda hit on Paula earlier in the bar. But when she had given him her card and explained about the flower, he realized that she wasn't the woman he was scheduled to meet. But he did provide information about the Titans Hotel owners when Paula mentioned that she may have a buyer for the flower.

Paula's friend, Lucy Cavanaugh was that individual, but neither Nick or Paula knew that at the time. Nick had been killed--execution style. And soon Paula realized that Lucy was not coming to spend the long weekend with her as they had planned. The article gig had been added by Paula to help pay the incidental expenses, since this was supposed to be an all-expense trip!

Paula didn't know whether to be angry or worried about Lucy. She had been known to take little side trips if she had met somebody, male, that is, interesting along the way. But when Paula began to receive text messages about 2 men, duct tape... Paula was at least nervous enough to start asking questions.Soon all the employees knew Paula and she met the young student who was daily taking care of the corpse flower, so was able to learn details of the pollination for her article.

Soon she had learned that the hotel owners were looking for a new partner to help get back on sound financial ground and that a Chinese investor was looking over the place. Obviously having a murder occur was not something that anybody was willing to talk about.

They were, however, quite willing to discuss what was happening in the background, between several groups who were trying to get authorization to open an Indian-owned casino! Was Nick Vigoriti killed because he was involved with those dealings?

As Paula interviewed and gathered clues to find out about Lucy, she received another text and was able to find her--only to be followed by several men who had earlier been following Paula!

This cozy is much more a whodunit with mystery that keeps readers involved as Paula, Babe and Lucy get in and out of trouble or save each other!Babe is the owner or a bar back in their home town, but she comes racing to the rescue when Paula calls! I'm trying to decide whether I like the cozy atmosphere or the whodunit better...so I think I'll go on reading to see what her next book presents! Dead Head is next, but, in my opinion, I still recommend you start with Pushing Up Daisies and The Big Dirt Nap--you can't go wrong reading this series!

Book Received Via
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G. A. Bixler

Lacking
The mystery plot was incredibly weak and the main protagonist, Paula, seemed only to have a periphery interest and involvement. The plot overall seemed rambling and haphazard, there was no conviction, no sense of urgency and I was never convinced of Paula's interest in anything, she seemed perpetually bored in the middle of her own story and I was bored right along with her. Those interested in the series for the gardening theme will find little to please since it garners only the occasional mention. If those reasons weren't enough to turn me away from the series well the protag's transformation from slightly prickly character to neurotic detached sizest certainly did the job. Is it possible for a character to de-evolve?

I obviously enjoyed this book a great deal less than the series opener, which received a strong three stars from me, but I don't know that my light enjoyment of the first is enough to overcome my real dislike for Paula. I find the main protag's neurotic eating and exercise habits, plus her constantly sizest thoughts a real turnoff. It seems everyone she encountered save her two friends were plump, pudgy, round, had haunches or were overflowing their seats. I'm not sure what the author was trying to prove with the constant mention of Paula's fitness, Paula's physical appeal, everyone else's flabbiness and Paula's "sleek" outdated wardrobe choices. Does she want us to believe that Paula is healthy and thin, the healthy part is questionable because a diet of protein bars and diet red bull with the occasional turkey wrap is hardly the picture of nutrition or health? Does she want us to believe that Paula is on the verge of an eating disorder? Does she want us to believe that Paula has questionable fashion sense with her leather pant, black jeans and suit jacket combinations? I don't know and I don't know that I care.

Perhaps the problem is the reader simply spends to much time with only Paula and little time with recurring characters, new characters and even the murder suspects interacting with her. She just isn't the kind of woman one wants to spend hours with, hearing her boring self-involved judgmental monologue. The next book should spend more time developing the mystery in a compelling and coherent manner, one that makes the reader keep going because the author is unraveling an intriguing tale and less time telling the audience about the physical awesomeness of Paula.
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I laughed out loud
I really enjoyed this book.I found myself laughing out loud on the bus on the way home from work.The only author/character that makes me do that is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.I like the assortment of characters that are starting to develop in this series, particularly the interection between Paula and Lucy.However, I would like it if somehow Paula could get a love interest, preferably someone who occasionally gets on her nerves.I'm not into gardening so I'm not very concerned about whether Rosemary Harris sticks with her particular theme.As long as the murder is plausible, the setting makes sense and the characters are entertaining that's the only consistency I need.Anyway, I am looking forward to the next installment.

Put me to sleep...
I really liked the first Dirty Business mystery, Pushing Up Daisies and was expecting another fun gardening-related mystery.As an avid gardener, I was sorely disappointed in The Big Dirt Nap.The story had absolutely nothing to do with gardening, the main character Paula didn't even get her hands dirty! At one point she does try to defend herself with a pitchfork, but that is about the extent of it. Why write a themed series if you are not going to stick to the theme?The author actually hints at the end of Dirt Nap that the next (third) book will be about gardening.She should have skipped The Big Dirt Nap all together.Not that I would have minded reading it if the story had been interesting, but it wasn't.The plot was erratic and lacked cohesiveness, involving a missing girlfriend, Russian mobsters, Indian Casinos, a sleazy Italian playboy, a homeless guy, some bikers, a trailer park and a dying hotel with too many bartenders.Needless to say it was disjointed and lacked any emotional connection, like a bad comic book.The supporting cast of characters were less than memorable, by the time I reached the last chapter I was upset with myself for my wasting time. The author does have a lovely sense of humor but that alone fails to save this book.

A fun read!
Paula Holliday's friend Lucy has invited her for an all-expense-paid trip to the Titans Hotel. Lucy is there to do an investigative story on the hotel and Paula, who owns Dirty Business gardening and landscape company, is there to see the famed corpse flower on display at the hotel.

Shortly after Paula arrives she runs into Nick Vigoriti. A good looking ladies man who refuses to accept the brush off and doggedly tries to pick her up. Next thing you know the police are knocking on Paula's door because Nick is dead. And worse yet, Lucy is missing. Somehow the two are tied together but when the police refuse to investigate the disappearance Paula starts asking questions that make people nervous.

Judging a book by the cover is supposed to be a no-no but I did and I was not all that excited about reading this book. Boy was I mistaken. This book is hilarious. Paula cracked me up from the opening line to the very end.

I'll share my favorite scene so you get an idea... With both Paula and Lucy in full Goth make up (don't ask LOL) they scare the heck out of a convenience store clerk. Paula then terrifies him further when she calls him by name.

"Chill. You name's on your shirt." I peeled off a few dollars,
then hurried Lucy out of the store, but not before sticking my
head back in and telling the frightened clerk to have a nice day.

The book is filled with those kinds of witty interactions and I couldn't get enough. The characters are well described that I could easily picture each and every one. This was the second book in the Dirty Business mystery series and it stands alone as I have not yet read book one, Pushing Up Daisies, which is now on my wish list. I highly recommend this one to all cozy mystery lovers. ... Read more

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