PUSHING UP DAISIES (Rosemary Harris)

Small town politics, a wise-cracking cafe owner, gardening, murder, a beautiful bff, and a couple of good-looking potential love interests ... What more could you ask for in a good cozy?  Paula Holliday has left her high pressure media job in New York to pursue a new, more relaxing (or so she thinks) career as a master gardener in fictional Springfield, CT.  One of her first accomplishments when she is hired to restore the historic gardens at Halcyon is to dig up a box containing a mummified  baby.  Her investigation into the identity of the baby and its mother leads her into an increasingly complicated web of intrigue and the discovery of several local scandals from the past.  Rosemary Harris does an excellent job of weaving all of the plot lines seamlessly into a delightful novel, the first in her "Dirty Business" series.