[amazon_link id=”1459707125″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]
[/amazon_link]Title : Corpse Flower
Author : Gloria Ferris
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Dundurn
Pages: 408
Publish Date : December 14th, 2013
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 4.2/5
Ex-socialite Bliss Moonbeam Cornwall was once married to attorney Mike Bains. Since then Mike has remarried and shafted Bliss out of most of the divorce settlement. She’s itching for revenge – that goal keeps her going. Impoverished, she now lives in a trailer park in a very questionable neighborhood, barely able to cobble together body and soul thanks to intermittent odd jobs around town: she cleans homes, teaches yoga, works at the cemetery yard and at the library. She’s also a real estate agent and general dogsbody to her wealthy, agoraphobic cousin Dougal. When he offers her a large amount of money to facilitate the pollination of his prized, rare Titan Arum (or corpse flower), Bliss jumps at it. Little does she know that the blooming (pun intended) corpse flower will be the least of her troubles.
“Corpse Flower” is a thoroughly entertaining read thanks to the character of the peppy, quirky Bliss. Bliss is in a tight situation: roof barely over her head, and not much money to speak of, plus the specter of her smarmy ex-husband and his equally detestable wife gadding about their small town making life difficult for her. But she’s still pretty upbeat and never fails to see the humor in things. Her viewpoint is fairly unique, and given the fact that she’s accident-prone, and trouble always seems to find her (and not the other way around) things are always interesting in Lockport, Ontario.
Even the secondary characters in this book are pretty interesting. There’s Dougal and his ex-wife Glory, who seems to see red whenever his name is mentioned. She is also the owner of the other corpse flower and Dougal hopes to use Bliss as intermediary to cross-pollinate the two plants. Then there is Chief Neil Redfern and Constable Thea Vanderbloom who bump into Bliss whenever she’s accidentally ingested marijuana, which happens often enough given that half the town is either growing or eating it.
Bliss’s home is in a small town which is great for mysteries, because everyone knows everyone, and we get to know most (if not all) of the characters. But besides that Bliss has got to be somewhat of a unique heroine. She’s poor but gutsy and speaks her mind, lives in a trailer, is almost BFF with the prostitute next door, and drives a motorcycle much heavier than she is, which means that if it falls she cannot pick it up. And yes, it falls. Now, throw in the agoraphobic amateur botanist cousin “whose Titan Arum was about to embark on sexual maturity with no nubile mate in sight”, pot-growing town elders, a possibly tainted police chief, AND a murder and you have yourself a party.
Corpse Flower is of the mystery genre, but it is also so much more. I’d like to think of it as an all-encompassing story with a murder, mystery and intrigue, humor and quirk, and even a little bit of romance. Ferris builds up a stellar cast of characters to carry forward the series. Bliss is very likeable and quite the underdog – so I was totally invested in her life, and I can’t wait to read more about her and Redfern.
An absolute treat to read, this one is highly recommended.
