Poppy Harmon Investigates

Desert Flowers Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Lee Hollis

Narrated by: Kim Niemi

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2018 Rick Copp (P)2019 Tantor

Just Okay

If you are just looking for an escape from books filled with sex and violence you probably will like this book. It's about the exploits of three octogenarians that start a detective agency. It's not a hold on to the edge of your seat thriller it's more of a mildly entertaining mellow ride. The narrator did a good job.

Meh

I would say this is just okay. Lost me toward the end - I wish I stopped listening. There were funny moments but mostly blah.

Fun but frustrating

I’ve got about 45 minutes left, and I hope mother puts daughter in place. So far the mother is written as a weak and submissive to her self righteous daughter. She is young with no life experience and has no clue what her mother had gone through. Everything else about Poppy is great, she is a smart and intuitive detective. I’m hoping for a big bang ending, then I will update my review.
Violet is sweet and a great friend.
IRIS - Go Iris!

Fun book. Great storyline.

The narrator made this difficult at times to listen to the audio version. Imo, she just "read the book," without inflection or change of emotion. Sort of flat.

Mixed Feelings: Good & Bad

The good: the story was cute and the three friends were likable. Even the egotistical Matt was likable. Some characters were tongue-in-cheek humorous.

The bad: the daughter was a real bummer and it was hard to take her, and the way her mother put up with her, never really standing up for herself - pull my hair out!

The way the main character deferred to Matt Flowers for all the credit for the “detective brain work” was irksome.

Those 2 issues made it a “no” for me. Never mind that there were essentially no good male characters - they were mostly schmucks.

Narration was good.

Fun story

Easy listening, the story and characters were well developed and the narration was outstanding.

Cute cozy mystery

If you’re of a certain age you will identify with this story. I actually really liked it and it has a Hollywood connection and that was a cute and interesting angle.

It was GREAT!

Wonderful storyline, I was pleasantly surprised. The narrator was really good. I will be reading more in this series.

Enjoyed it!

Pretty cozy setup…three older women and a handsome guy running a detective agency. Poppy and Matt are great. I’ve seen criticism about the daughter, and yes, her appearance in the story made me cringe, but I’m hoping she’ll change in time. Iris and Violet are a hoot! This is good, clean mystery, and I look forward to the next one.

If you are looking for a fun book with great narrative and a fun story line this is a great book

Really fun listen! Really kept you wondering!Great narration! Would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery murder books😃