I experienced a near instant dislike of Athena and her family. The first chapter opens a day after the events of the previous book. I haven’t read that, but it seems Athena solved a murder and the murderer tried to kill her. And the very next day she’s back at work!

Yipes. Rather than surprise her at work with a party and cake couldn’t the family give her a couple of days off to process those events? And save the hurray-for-our-hero cake for family dinner that evening? Okay, later it turns out that her mom and dad suggests to Athena to take some time off and it’s Athena that thinks she’s fine.

At work - a family run garden center - Athena is approached by Abby Knight, a fellow amateur sleuth turned private investigator, to help in a murder case that involves her cousin. The cousin was emcee at a fashion show where one of the models ended up dead. Cause of death: poison in a water bottle. The cousin is currently held in jail because she handled the water bottles and failed to follow police directions. That is: left town when told not to leave town.

As a side note: getting tired of that cliché. If police don’t want people to leave town, they should arrest them outright. If the police don’t arrest them, people can go where they want to. Including to their hometown 90 minutes away.

I read on, but my instant dislike seems to have made me prejudiced. While I was hoping to find some things likeable about the characters - always looking out for a new favourite series - I found another thing to dislike at every turn.

Athena reflects on her previous investigations - spoiling the reader on some earlier books in the process. It appears that Athena and Case’s modus operandi is to throw around accusations until they hit target. That’s not an investigation. That’s grounds for a slander lawsuit.

Abby Knight is no better. She manages to intimidate a hotel manager with the words: “[I am] a paying customer with an active Yelp account.” That hotel must have seriously few Yelp reviews if one review could spoil their rating. I also found her manipulation of a witness less than charming. “I’m a private investigator. It is my business.” O RLY? No one is required to talk just because someone else asks them. Private investigators are regular citizens. They do not have police power.

Abby does get riled up rather easily by people who say yellow is not her colour or insult her intelligence. There’s no need for her to impress these people, so why does she care about their opinions? It should be water off a duck’s back to her.

The side characters, the other potential suspects, are an interesting bunch of characters. They made the mystery interesting. Athena’s family not so much. Her sisters Selene and Maia are just filler. Her sister Delphi acts about ten years younger than she is. Athena is sceptical of Delphi’s coffee ground readings - hurray for that - but starts to take them more seriously when it suits her investigation. Delphi did a reading of Abby and saw she was being followed and the letters M and S. Athena immediately thinks of one of her suspects. A sceptic would have pointed out those are the initials of Abby’s husband Marco Salvare.

Anyway, Athena solves the case when the murderer drops by unannounced. There’s something about the murderer that doesn’t make sense: why would they continue to work in a place that wreaks havoc on their allergies? They seemed to be in a position where they had other options.

Spoiler

Such as not stock the product that gives them allergies.

And because this book has left me in a mood to nitpick:

Athena tries to be as clever as Jessica Fletcher - catching someone out in a mistake - but her memory is not as good as Jessica’s. She asks the mayor’s security guard if he knows anything about a note left at her office. He replies he wasn't on Greene Street. Athena finds this suspect because she never mentioned where her office was. No, but the mayor did the previous day when he introduced her and Case as the owners of the Greene Street Detective Agency. The security guard could have remembered that.

There also were a few instance of technology fail. Case has removed the doors from his jeep. Yet, after leaving the fair he unlocks the doors of his jeep and Athena even holds open a door. Which is it? Doors or no doors?

Athena is scroll through a list of questions on her iPad and suddenly her screen goes blank. She is puzzled for a moment and then remembers she hasn’t charged it. My iPad always warns if there’s less than 10% battery charge. Why doesn’t hers?

Long review short: I did not find a new favourite series, but I can scratch two series off my ever growing to read list.