Snipped in the Bud - Kate Collins

Title: Snipped in the Bud
Author: Kate Collins
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: A Flower Shop Mystery #4
Year Published: 2006
ISBN: 0451218310
Date Finished: December 26
Pages: 286
Rating: 4/5

From the back cover:

"When I swapped the thorny problems of law school for the budding business of my flower store, Bloomers, I vowed that I, Abby Knight, wouldn't be caught dead visiting that hateful campus ever again. But sometimes a girl's got to face down her dragons..."

PLANT OF ATTACK

Someone orders a black rose for Abby's old law school nemesis, Professor "Snapdragon" Puffer. But her plans for a speedy delivery are foiled when he catches her putting the bloom on his desk and sends it straight into the trash. Abby flees in terror, only to run smack into Carson Reed, the professor who recently had her arrested at an animal rights protest. After a biting exchange, Abby storms out of he building. But if there's anything she can't stand, it's injustice and bullies. So, even though she knows bad luck comes in threes, she ignores the advice of her sometimes boyfriend, hunk-a-licious Marco Salvare, and heads back in to retrieve her dignity and her flower-only to find the rose now decorating a dead professor, and herself the prime suspect...

First Sentence: "I jammed both feet on the brake and brought my old yellow convertible to a screeching halt mere inches from the groin of a dragon."

Abby Knight is back and once again finds herself involved in a murder investigation, as the number one suspect. She innocently delievers a rose to an old law school professor which leads to a confrontation between the two. Old feelings rush to the surface during their exchange and Abby runs out of his office. When she reaches her car, she realizes she's not a law student anymore and her former professor did not have the right to speak to her as such. She pulls herself together and decides to get her flower back. When she returns to his office, she discovers a dead body and soon finds herself at the top of the police suspect list.

Much of the book is spent with Abby in disguise trying to find the real killer. There's a sub-plot of animal kidnapping that eventually ties into the murder investigation. Abby's cousin, Jillian, makes another appearance when she returns from her honeymoon, only to bring drama with her. Overall I thought Snipped in the Bud is the best in the series so far.