Early Review: Poppy Harmon Investigates by Lee Hollis

Title: Poppy Harmon Investigates
Author: Lee Hollis
Series: #1 in the Desert Flowers Mystery series
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington (July 31, 2018)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2

Synopsis: When Poppy goes from complacent retiree to penniless widow in a matter of weeks, the idea of spending her golden years as the biggest charity case in Palm Springs renders her speechless. With no real skills and nothing left to lose, Poppy uses her obsession with true crime shows to start a career as a private eye . . .

But after opening the Desert Flowers Detective Agency with help from her two best friends, Violet and Iris, Poppy realizes that age brings wisdom, not business--until she convinces her daughter's handsome boyfriend, Matt, to pose as the face of the agency. It's not long before Matt's irresistible act snags a client desperate to retrieve priceless jewelry burglarized from an aging actress at the Palm Leaf Retirement Village. Or before Poppy stumbles upon the bloodied body of the victim's arch rival . . .

In a flash, Poppy's innocent detective gig is upstaged by a dangerous murder investigation riddled with slimy suspects and unspeakable scandal. As she and her team uncover the truth, Poppy must confront the secrets about her late husband's past and swiftly catch a killer lurking around the retirement community--even if it means turning her world upside down all over again.

My Thoughts: A decent first book in a new series with some of my favorite cozy tropes.

The Good: The whacky cast of characters were just delightful in this book, minus some of Iris's cantankerous scenes where she grated a bit. Their interactions were the highlight of this book. There were many passages I ended up highlighting in my kindle, even.

The mystery aspect took a long time to show up but it was a decent mystery in the end. I'm hoping as the series progresses the mysteries will be more prevalent in the books. Overall, each character provided a special part within the investigation which made the whole mystery interesting.

The Bad: None of the men portrayed within the book were highlighted in a positive way. In the end Matt did redeem himself but for most of the book all the men were superficial, egocentric, and ginormous tools. In regards to the other characters, I did like them but I feel Poppy's character took a hit when her daughter turned out to be a shrew and in the end Poppy blamed herself for her daughter's actions. Her full grown adult daughter.

Also, the introduction of the characters and Poppy's background in particular took a major chunk of the book. The first mystery wasn't introduced until 40% into the book which made it seem as if it weren't a big deal and the book didn't have a cozy mystery feel because of this. In addition there was a murder, which was actually an interesting part of the book, but coming into the book in the last 1/3 of the book made if feel like an afterthought.

In a Nutshell: It took me quite awhile to really get into this book but once I hit the halfway point I flew through the rest of the book. This was my first book by Lee Hollis and I would read another one by her.