Broken Dishes (Benni Harper Mystery, #11)

by Earlene Fowler

When Benni Harper's friend passes away, he leaves his Broken DIS ranch to his daughter Shawna and her husband. Instead of raising cattle, the couple decides to turn it into a dude ranch. And while their intentions may be good, business is not. Leave it to Benni and her family to come to the rescue. Her plan? To tempt vacationers with a quilting and western extravaganza. It works. And soon, Benni and her family are cooking, quilting, and horseback riding with a whole slew of western tenderfoots." But the west gets a little too wild when one of the ranch dogs discovers a human bone on the property. It's enough to scare any reasonable guest away. To top it off, there's a rumor that one of the visitors is a nationally known travel writer, secretly working on a write-up. A bad review could easily kill business. Before long, Benni's old nemesis, Detective Ford "Hud" Hudson, is on board investigating. Together they uncover the remains of a murdered man buried in a shallow grave. Now, Benni must keep the guests safe and happy while unearthing the truth behind a terrible crime.

• ISBN10: 042519597X
• ISBN13: 9780425195970
• Publish Date: 1 May 2004
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 September 2013
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 271
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

Well, I suppose it has to happen at least once in every series, but at least in this series, it took 10 books before I found one I didn't think was excellent. The plot was good, but I guess I just didn't like that Benni was without her usual cast of friends and family (they were there, but all much more in the background than usual). I didn't feel the empathy I'm sure the author was aiming for in the plight of the ranch owners, and I just didn't click with the story overall. It happens. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this series to anyone enjoying cozy mysteries.