Carol Ann H. (beadnread) reviewed on 3/19/2008 + 45 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Pushing Up Bluebonnets is the fifth in Leann Sweeney's enjoyable Yellow Rose Mystery series. The story starts off with a bang, when Abby Rose, owner of Yellow Rose Investigations and adoption investigator extraordinaire, is asked by Chief of Pineview PD, Cooper Boyd, to try to identify a woman who is lying in a coma in the Ben Taub Neurologic ICU, the victim of an automobile accident that was NO accident. The only item in the car with the victim was one of Abby's Yellow Rose business cards. Abby accompanies Chief Boyd to visit the patient, but her bruised, battered, and swollen appearance makes any meaningful identification all but impossible.

Undaunted and without an actual client to pay her, Abby decides to use the handwriting on the back of the business card to help identify the victim (just one of the reasons we love her!). So Abby, with the help of her irascible (and, as it turns out, quite ill) Aunt Caroline, takes on the huge task of going through all of the correspondence ever received by Yellow Rose Investigations. When Abby hits pay dirt, she expects things to fall easily into place to allow Chief Boyd to find out who wanted the victim out of the picture, but what Abby actually learns is that not everything is what it seems. And when Abby is hired by the victim's wealthy grandfather to uncover her past, she finds a whole lot more than she bargained for - including an entire family full of people who wouldn't mind if the victim was removed from the picture, permanently. Yikes!

Abby is surrounded by her usual likable supporting cast of characters, including her twin sister slash psychologist, Kate, and significant other slash homicide detective, Jeff - both of whom find their way into the fray. Jeff is protective but not domineering, and is a wonderful brother to Doris, his sister with Down Syndrome. Kate is coming off a very bad relationship and assisting Abby helps move her in a positive direction. I have the feeling we AND Kate will be seeing more of Cooper Boyd!

The storyline allows Abby to flex her investigative muscles while trusting family and friends to keep her out of harm's way. She encounters plenty of suspicious and nefarious characters, but just exactly how many of them are bent on murder? Abby has to use all of her abilities - and those of everyone she knows - to catch a killer and help a young woman find peace and a place to belong. Wonderful job, Ms. Sweeney!

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