series

This is the fourth book in the Earlene Fowler quilting mystery series.

Benni Harper and her husband Gabe Ortiz become involved in a police investigation after Benni discovers a woman's body floating in a lake next to their jogging path. The dead woman is dressed in a Mother Goose costume and Benni immediately recognizes her as Nora Cooper, a local storyteller.

Because of Benni's job as curator of the San Celina Folk Art Museum, she was well acquainted with Nora Cooper and they were both working on an upcoming Storytelling and Story Quilt Festival. Benni tries to stay out of the police investigation, but she keeps getting pulled in because she knew the victim and most of the suspects.

Benni and Gabe are newlyweds and still getting adjusted to living together which is difficult because they are both set in their ways. The situation is not helped by the arrival of three different relatives who all come to visit at the same time causing commotion in their small home.

Though Earlene Fowler gives us a patchwork of personalities and several different plots, she still manages to keep the reader interested and entertained.

I've read the entire series. Loved them all.

In this book, Benni Harper, who is recently married to the Chief of Police, Gabe Ortiz, finds the dead body of one of the storytellers from the museum. Since she knows the victim and the suspects she tries to stay out of the investigation, but everyone thinks she knows more than she does.
I found the ending quite unsatisfying -- not because of who is revealed as the murderer, but the way in which this is discovered.
I also found Gabe's self-righteous macho posturing too much to take. He is at least as much to blame for the problems between him and his son, Sam, as Sam is. How could Sam not be troubled with a father who can't find anything good about him?