A Midsummer’s Fatal Bloom

On the Fourth of July, just past Midsummer’s Day, Ashland’s fairy queen is already dead.Ashland’s Fourth of July parade is in full swing when a spectacular Midsummer Night’s Dream float glides down Main Street, its flower-covered bower carrying a beautiful woman dressed as Titania. The crowd applauds.Retired antiquities investigator William Mills sees something else.The fairy queen is far too still.When celebrated floral designer Lila Beaumont topples lifeless among the blossoms, what first looks like a tragic collapse quickly begins to smell like murder. A poisonous plant has been deliberately wired into her elaborate costume. A silver atomizer has vanished. And nearly everyone who helped create Lila’s magnificent display had a reason to wish its demanding creator out of the picture.William and Carol Lindsey soon discover that the murder may have been designed as carefully as the float itself-every flower, bottle, costume piece, and clue passing through so many hands that guilt seems to belong everywhere and nowhere.Then the ghosts begin pointing toward what the living have overlooked.Dante, their mischievous ghost cat, uncovers clues hidden in unlikely places, while the Blue Lady and the restless spirit of a long-dead seamstress send William a cryptic warning:The petals lie. Follow the handoff.When someone returns to the parade warehouse searching for evidence that should have remained hidden, William and Carol realize the killer may still be rearranging the truth-and anyone who discovers the final piece could become part of the next display.A Midsummer’s Fatal Bloom is the fifth Ghostly Ashland Shakespeare Mystery, filled with paranormal clues, Shakespearean charm, small-town intrigue, delicious food and recipes, a slow-growing romance, and one very opinionated ghost cat.In Ashland, beauty can be murder.