Light Reading for Busy Days

After the intensity of Tami Hoag's Deeper than the Dead, I needed something light and quick to read while hopefully catching up on necessary chores. So, I borrowed this Rosemary Harris book from the library and it was just what the doctor ordered.

This isn't the greatest mystery novel ever written, nor is it the worst. Set in a small town in Connecticut, it's light fun with quirky characters and situations, and a crime solver named Paula Holliday who is trying to make a living with a nursery and landscaping business called Dirty Business. She hangs out at a cafe called the Paradise Diner run by her friend Babe, one of the aforesaid quirky characters.

A group of wealthy soccer moms comes to the diner frequently for the home baked goods and tea. Surprise! One of those expensively dressed women who has become an unlikely friend of Paula's is suddenly arrested and returned to face an old jail sentence in Michigan. She had been convicted of drug dealing more than 20 years earlier but escaped. Reminded me of radical organization members from the 60s being found living a soccer mom life in recent years.

Her husband asks Paula to find out who turned her in. He hadn't known about it, nor had anyone in town, so who did it? Paula's adventures trying to help her friend are very funny, a good escape from the busyness of the season, and short so it isn't impossible to get it read this month either.

It's available from Amazon.com of course. I'm an Amazon Associate.