With a first book in a mystery series, you never know quite what you going to get. Does it set up a character in a way that you really want to revisit them again? Does it leave you eager for the next "installment?" And more importantly, does it have a decent mystery? In Pushing Up Daisies: a Dirty Business Mystery by Rosemary Harris, she takes on those challenges and does it very well.
Harris' lead character Paula Holliday is busy trying to get her own gardening business off the ground. She has a few regular clients, but money is tight in establishing this second career of hers. She gets the opportunity to bid on a project to restore a once grand garden whose owners have recently died. On her first day of the job, she finds a buried metal object - which just happens to have a dead baby inside. Paula finds herself in the midst of a local mystery - whose child it is? The property owners were unmarried spinsters - or were they? What is the significance of the Spanish medal wrapped around the child? Does this have anything to do with a old case of a missing Hispanic girl ? Paula, being the new kid in town, has to rely on some of her new friends and neighbors to bring the truth to light. It also helps if the local police Sergeant takes an interest in the case.
Harris also does a great job of incorporating the topic of Spanish speaking day laborers in to the story. In a major metropolitan area like this locale - the Connecticut suburbs near New York City - the chance that your gardening workers are Hispanic, is a very high one. And with that sub theme, Harris grounds her tale with the realities of the landscaping and gardening business.
It is a great start for a promising new series. I really enjoyed the character, and the surrounding quirky cast, and I am truly interested to read the next book! A very fun read.
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