Product Description

When the musical director of Benni Harper's church is called away, Benni gets "volunteered" to take over a children's play already in rehearsal. But the production comes to a screeching halt when Benni discovers the body of the church handyman right in front of the altar.

With a growing cast of suspects, and a small girl as the only witness to the crime, Benni must unravel a plot of theft and murder before it's curtains for her.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134674 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425206522
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. No wonder Benni Harper fans are so faithful—the woman can't even stay out of trouble in church. At the start of Fowler's topnotch 12th cozy to feature the quilter and amateur sleuth (after 2004's Broken Dishes), Benni stumbles on the body of church handyman Walt Adams, who's oozing blood onto the sanctuary's new carpeting. Who would hurt a sweet old caretaker? On the other hand, what did anyone really know about Walt's past? Both the policemen in Benni's life—her Latino hunk hubby, Gabe Ortiz, and Ford "Hud" Hudson, who'd love to be more than her friend—warn her to leave the detective work to the professionals, but as usual, Benni leaps first and thinks later. Between Walt's murder and the disappearance of a valuable violin from the San Celina, Calif., folk museum, Gabe and Benni have their hands full. The surprise visit of Gabe's long-estranged cousin, Luis, adds to their difficulties, as he and Gabe seek to work through their differences, and Benni seeks to referee. Gabe's reluctance to open up to Benni propels the three-year Ortiz-Harper union into some rough waters. A heart-hammering hostage situation leads to a highly unexpected ending, while most readers will approve of the almost-but-not-quite-resolved Benni-Hud relationship. <
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From Booklist
In San Celina, California, Benni Harper is curator of the local folk art museum, and her husband, Gabe Ortiz, is chief of police. There's a huge tangle of friends, relations, and family members attached to the couple: in this tale, the focus is on Gabe's cousin, Luis, who is close as a brother, and Benni's grandma, Dove, who raised her and who has roped her into helping with the children's Christmas pageant at the Baptist Church. Then Benni finds the church's reclusive handyman murdered in the sanctuary; meanwhile, an antique violin goes missing from Benni's museum. The solving of one crime becomes intertwined with that of the other, as Fowler mixes the mystery plot with some fairly didactic tableaux about the value of faith, the complexities of memory and marital fidelity, immigration procedure and practice, and how the police manage hostage situations. A series that had been progressing nicely seems stalled a bit here, bur fans' interest in Benni may get them through the clunky exposition. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Benni's warmhearted openness and her deep faith make her an engaging companion, indeed."
-- Booklist (Booklist )

Customer Reviews

Everything you love about her books and more!
Earlene Fowler's Books stand out because of the relationships of her characters. This book gives you so many insights into her regular cast of characters that this alone is worth the read, but this book really surprised me. I had several things figured out pretty closely and then she threw me completely. By the end I found myself tearing up on the plane as I read the end of the book.
Hud, Gabe, everyone else show us new facets of their characters and the new characters are the keys to a lot of this. One character I really hope to see more of in up coming books. The mystery is a good one, it held a surprise I didn't see coming but as always, the real gift of these books is the time spent with characters who have become like friends over the years. This was a great addition to a wonderful series. I won't go over the plot here because other reviews will and I don't want to know that much before I read it, just if it was a good read, this is a very good read.

exciting Benni Harper mystery
In San Celina, California Benni Harper has her hands full as the wife of the chief of police, curator of the local folk art museum, attending two church committees and being a participant for the heritage walk. Yet when her grandmother Dove asks her to help put together the children's church musical of Pilgrim's Progress she is unable to tell the woman who raised her no. At the same, Benni has unexpected company when her husband Gabe's cousin, Luis, drops in unexpectedly.

Surprisingly, Benni has life under control until she finds the dead body of the church custodian Walt Adams. She notices immediately he was murdered by blunt force trauma to the head and nobody knows why the man who was kindness itself was murdered. Shortly thereafter, a valuable violin that is exhibited in the church is found to be a forgery. The original instrument is worth over a million dollars. Between the robbery and the murder Gabe has his hands full with Benni conducting her own parallel investigation because she thinks the two crimes are linked. Little does she know that before the perpetrators are revealed, she will put her own life at risk to save the innocents who are in harm's way.

Earlene Fowler has written another exciting Benni Harper mystery but DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS is extra special. Readers, used to seeing Benni's thoughts, get inside the psyche of Gabe who must cope with two major crimes, a hostage situation, his wife's sleuthing, and the volatile relationship that exists between him and his cousin. The mystery is very cleverly designed so that it is impossible to figure out what is really going on even though there are solid clues sprinkled throughout the exhilarating storyline.

Harriet Klausner

A fun read!
This was another great offering from Earlene Fowler. The ending was a total shocker for me...always a good thing in a mystery! The characters were just wonderful - the little girl, Angelina is so sweet. I was actually hoping that she'd be a recurring character, but it looks like she won't. But the characters and plot were fantastic as always! Definitely worth a read - and of course you need to go back and read all the ones before it!