In Harris’s enjoyable third Dirty Business mystery (after 2009’s The Big Dirt Nap
), Paula Holliday, amateur sleuth and gardening professional of Springfield, Conn., learns that one of her best clients, Caroline Sturgis, is actually Monica Jane Weithorn, the “Fugitive Mom” who escaped prison—where she was serving time for drug dealing—25 years earlier. Paula, whose landscaping business is suffering in the current bad economy, had been considering going into partnership with Caroline. Caroline’s distraught husband hires Paula to discover who turned his wife in to the authorities. Sgt. Mike O’Malley, a Springfield cop and Paula’s friend, wants to know more, too, ditto Paula’s journalist friend, Lucy Cavanaugh, who plans to do a story on Monica/Caroline. First-person flashbacks from Monica/Caroline add a depth missing from Paula’s previous outing. (Apr.)
