March 30, 2009

Review: The Big Dirt Nap by Rosemary Harris


Courtesy of LibraryThing

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.

5 comments :

bermudaonion said...

I agree with you about the cover - it's not too hot. Glad to see the book is better.

Unknown said...

It does sound funny, I might grab this one. I need some laughter in my life. But with that cover...I don't know, it might scare some customers away.

Rosemary Harris said...

Hi guys,
I'm so glad you liked the book..I had a lot of fun both researching and writing it. I'm finishing up book three in the series right now..it's called Deadhead and should be out next spring.

The cover...yes...in fairness to the very talented artist it's hard to communicate a fun read in the cover, much easier to show weapons or a city skyline. Believe it or not it's been hotly debated! I'm curious, what would you have put on the cover?
Here's an idea, email my publisher email saying you liked the book but the cover almost made you not read it. Send comments to trademarketing@stmartins.com
Maybe you can help design the next cover!
Cheers,
Rosemary

MonieG said...

Ms. Harris!! Thank you so much for visting my blog. I LOVED this book and hope to read your others.

My thinking is that the plain black writing in the title and the plain blue body are just too bland. It didn't catch my eye so I didn't imagine the story would hold my attention. I'm glad I was wrong.

Thank you for the publishers email. I did send them a note and look forward to seeing what Deadhead's cover looks like. :)

Ladytink_534 said...

Cute! I'll have to see about picking this one up.

Oh, love the new look!