Slugfest
A Dirty Business Mystery
By Rosemary Harris
(Minotaur Books, Hardcover, 9780312569969, 288pp.)
Publication Date: April 12, 2011
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Mass Market Paperback
Categories: Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths, Mystery & Detective - General
 |     |
Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated Rosemary Harris is back with her fourth Dirty Business mystery, Slugfest, set at a legendary Northeast flower show where more than the plants are dying.
When Paula Holliday agrees to act as exhibit manager for a reclusive artist she’s expecting a laidback weekend picking up gardening tips. She doesn’t expect to be knee-deep in horticultural sabotage, beheaded gnomes, homicide, and something called The Javits Curse. Then an overeager attendee is found floating in the river and Paula realizes she accidentally holds a clue to his murder—that’s when the garden gloves come off and this flower show turns into a real Slugfest!
This time out Paula is joined by a colorful cast that includes Rolanda “Fort” Knox, a no-nonsense security guard; Guy Anzalone, Brooklyn's Tumbled Stone King; Jamal Harrington, a high school kid with a black belt and a green thumb; JC Kaufman, a feisty lady who hates leaving home without her weapon of choice; and a slick marketing guy hawking the hottest new product at the show, a foolproof pest repellant that people are dying to get their hands on.
With limited means and her ragtag crew, Paula must solve her toughest mystery yet and root out a killer before she finds herself pushing up daisies.
Rosemary Harris was born in Brooklyn and has been a bookstore manager, a video producer, and a television executive. She is a past-president of Sisters in Crime, New England, and current vice-president of Mystery Writers of America, New York. She and her husband split their time between New York City and Fairfield County, Connecticut, where she is a master gardener. The previous three Dirty Business mysteries, Pushing Up Daisies, The Big Dirt Nap, and Dead Head, were also published by Minotaur Books. Visit her Web site at www.rosemaryharris.com and her blog at www.jungleredwriters.com.
“Harris’ writing is sharp and funny. Slugfest is an absolute treat.”—RT Book Review (4 ½ stars)
“Lively . . . The New York City locale makes for a refreshing, if temporary, change of scene from rural Connecticut in a series sure to appeal to fans of Susan Wittig Albert.”—Publishers Weekly
“Hilarious.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Slugfest is a knockout! Witty and hilarious, wry and wise, this smart and sophisticated mystery combines quirky characters, clever dialogue and a page-turner of a plot. I loved it!”—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha-, Anthony-, and Macavity-award winning author of Prime Time
“Delightful . . . Harris works in what is called the ‘cozy’ genre of crime books . . . but her novels are so sophisticated and are put together so beautifully that she shouldn’t be lumped with all of those books that read like spin-offs of Murder, She Wrote. . . . The protagonist’s observations of the life going on around her are as entertaining as the amateur crime solving she gets sucked into. . . . The plot is laid out smoothly and compellingly but the real fun in Slugfest derives from the eccentric (and sinister) characters Paula meets . . . [Slugfest] deserves a spot near the top of any mystery reader’s warm weather book pile.”—Joe Myers, CTNews.com
 |
1Q84 Haruki Murakami Knopf |
 |
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
 |
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Knopf |
 |
Death Comes to Pemberley PD James Knopf |
