I have loved all of the books I have read in the Desert Flowers series. Poppy and her fellow private investigators, Violet, Iris, and Matt are delightful characters. The story is well developed and you are off on an adventure from the first page. The methods the detective agency uses to solve crimes or catch people they are paid to expose for their indiscretions will have you laughing, smiling, or shaking your head thinking they are very creative. I am soooo not a fan of reality TV and so when the focus of the book was on a “bachelor” TV show, I wasn’t thrilled. And if I ignored the star of the “bachelor,” then I could handle the rest of the book. I love seeing older adults show they are still perky and able to do most anything. Poppy has a lot of moxie and I love seeing her get the best of those who underestimate her abilities. Can’t wait for the next adventure with the Desert Flowers group!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Cozies for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest, personal review. Poppy and the Desert Flowers are back at it again! Very engaging cozy mystery with humor thrown in. Poppy and the detectives are trying to catch a group of thieves targeting senior citizens. Unfortunately, this groups reach is long and it puts Poppy in danger. I enjoy the fact that these are older women who are in charge and who run a successful business while enjoying their life.

Lee Hollis continues Poppy's adventures with crimes in Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor. Poppy retired from acting to head the Desert Flowers Detective Agency; she helps to nail a trio of young thieves who have been scamming and robbing elderly ladies. Then a mysterious man targets her; he kills a friend driving Poppy's car. Poppy discovers this character has multiple fake identities and seems fascinated on a starlet of a reality show. Poppy goes undercover to find the perpetrator on the reality show filming set. What could go wrong? Delightful cozy.

Princess Fuzzypants here: It is always entertaining when Poppy and the other members of the Desert Flowers Detective Agency is on the job. It starts off deep undercover for Poppy as she brings down a gang of scammers who are preying on older people. Once the gang is in handcuffs, she thinks the job is done. The danger is only beginning.

After two attempts on her life from an unknown assailant, she realizes there is a very demented master mind who is out for revenge. In her investigation she discovers that the killer is obsessed with a young woman who is about to star in a new reality series. Once more Poppy goes undercover along with Matt as he competes to be the winner of the woman’s hand. But unexpected things happen and by the time Poppy figures out who the villain is she is once again in his crosshairs and he does not intend to miss again.

Great characters, good solid story and enough twists to satisfy any reader. Five purrs and two paws up.

Another fun adventure with the Desert Flowers! This series has just the right amount of humor, tension, and drama, keeping your attention the entire time. I love that Poppy and her friends are all older, giving them the advantage over their opponents and changing stereotypes at the same time. The story was well paced and the writing flowed smoothly. Highly recommended!

This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series. I enjoy the oh-so-likeable characters. I love the friendships, the quirky perspectives, and the fun Poppy and the gang have in the Desert Flowers Detective Agency. There is so much going on in this one book. There's Generation Z crime ring scamming seniors. Investigating that case leads to a stalker of Poppy herself. And this stalker isn't interested in the former starlight's radiance - he'd like to see her six feet under. This is a series for all ages, but those aged 50+ might enjoy it even more as the older Poppy Harmon shows that age doesn't have to slow your wit, your capabilities, or your joie de vivre!

Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor is book #4 in A Desert Flowers
Mystery series by Lee Hollis.

Poppy goes undercover to catch a Gand defrauding the elderly. Someone is not happy and Poppy is in danger.

This was a very entertaining story. It’s the first book in the series that I’ve read, but I bought the earlier books to catch up. Poppy, Violet, Iris, and Matt are an interesting team. Poppy’s relationship with Detective Jordan’s wife brings humor to the story which Is needed because the threat to Poppy was chilling. I really enjoyed the mystery and all the twists in solving it.

Thank you to the author, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for the free copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

I have really enjoyed this series [that I started simply because I got this book from NG] much more than I expected. It has been very refreshing to read about older women who are not ready to just roll up and die and decide to do something about it. Poppy is a great MC and I really love how Matt has gone from a token character to a genuine friend to the women and how they all work together to solve crime.

This time around, it gets very personal and they have to work really hard and go deep undercover to save not only the agency, but the very life of Poppy Harmon.

This is a excellent series [with an fantastic narrator - I highly recommend listening to these books] and I really hope there will be more forthcoming.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lee Hollis, and Kensington Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor by Lee Hollis is a totally entertaining cozy mystery featuring a private investigator of a certain age, and her cohorts: two other woman and one young, hot, male actor. Their latest case had been capturing a trio of women who were moving in on elderly patients and taking them for all they had. One resented it and came to Desert Flowers Detective Agency for redress. After testifying and sending the women to jail, Poppy found herself in peril, presumably from a partner in these crimes. It became imperative to capture him/them when Poppy loaned her car to a neighbor and that neighbor was run off the road and killed. The found the man's abandoned apartment and, side from a parcel of forged IDs, they discovered he had a "crush" on a young woman who was currently preparing to start in a television program along the lines of "The Bachelor." They had to catch him and save her.

Poppy is a totally entertaining heroine who NEVER lets anything go, so it is necessary to not get on the wrong side of her. As an actress in a previous life, she knows plenty of people, has considerable acting talent, and knows her way around theatrical makeup. She is fearless and clever. She totally trades on her age (60ish) but will never cop to being anything but young and beautiful. Her friends, Violet and Iris, are not nearly as outgoing as Poppy, but every bit as clever as they keep the home fires burning and do the research while she is in the field. This is a fabulous series.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor by Kensington, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #kensington #poppyharmonandthebackstabbingbachelor #leeellis

The Desert Flowers Detective Agency is hired to catch scam artists who are preying on the elderly so Poppy drags out her makeup kit and poses as a handicapped octogenarian to catch the thieves in the act. However, catching the swindlers may have gotten Poppy and agency into deeper waters because now Poppy has a stalker who is related to the case.

This was a really fun mystery because of the way that the stalker is woven into the story. It was good to see Poppy being able to step and take charge and solve all the aspects of the case.

There is a group of young people targeting the elderly and Poppy wants to stop them so she goes undercover to do just that. Poppy is able to catch the young women red handed and is happy to testify against them in court. The ring leader, Tanya Cook, wants to get Poppy for what she has done. The scammers have been caught and prosecuted so things should go back to normal right? Poppy soon realizes she has a stalker who will stop at nothing to see her dead. She soon learns that her stalker is to be part of a new reality show so she gets herself in a position to find out just who this deadly person is. Follow along as Poppy uses all of her know how to find a killer or will the killer get to her first?

Sixty-something Poppy runs the Desert Flowers Detective Agency in Palm Springs along with Violet, Iris, and out-of-work actor Matt. Poppy was a popular television actress in the 1980s. In Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor, Poppy goes undercover trying to catch a thieving in-home elder care assistant. Poppy has a stalker, who she believes is trying to stop her testifying against the crooked assistant. However, the stalking continues even after the assistant is convicted.

In the last book in this series, Poppy Harmon and the Pillow Talk Killer, Poppy and Matt go undercover filming a remake of Palm Springs Vacation. The movie is a hit leading to a role for Matt on the latest The Rock movie. But Matt returns to help Poppy find her stalker in a Bachelor-type show. Will they find the stalker and uncover his motive before anyone’s life is destroyed?

This is the fourth book in the series, and I’ve read and enjoyed them all. You have to love a series where every woman over fifty is not somebody’s grandmother or aunt. Poppy really has it going on—a successful business, great friends that have her back, and a compelling new love interest. She also isn’t afraid to get roughed up a bit while wrestling the baddie for his gun.

If you are a person of a certain age, Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor is the perfect cozy mystery for you and highly recommended. 4 stars!

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Poppy and her Desert Flowers friends brought down a ring that was scamming seniors, but Poppy was gonna need to watch her back after the perp yelled threats at her. After a couple near misses, Poppy and the police came up wit a pretty awesome scheme.

With Matt out of the country, the ladies were doing pretty well on their own as far as senior citizens wanting to hire them. He might've been the handsome face like Charlie being the man behind the Angels, but these ladies didn't need anyone to take care of them, lol. Although as their friend and coworker, I think they missed him a lot! He was practically like a son to Poppy, but she'd always told him not to let their little acting gig (where he pretends to be the lead investigator) take precedence over a movie if he could get in one. Poppy got to test out her disguise and acting skills while Matt went on a reality show to flush out a killer.

Boy what a showdown with Poppy not having much time to think about whether she was brave or not. She just had to do something quickly for someone she loved. Finally the annoying killer was hauled away, and Poppy could have her stalker-free sanity back while enjoying some time with her sweet guy Sam.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Cozies via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

I wasn't a fan of Poppy Harmon at the beginning but she slowly grew on me and i thoroughly enjoyed this 4th instalment: it's entertaining, fast paced, and gripping.
I was glad to catch up with the characters and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is the 4th instalment in the Desert Flowers Mystery series and my 2nd. Poppy Harmon is a private investigator who set herself up in business when her fourth husband died after he spent their fortune. A socialite and retired actress, she runs the Desert Flowers Detective Agency along with friends, Iris and Violet in Palm Springs. In this cozy tale, Poppy and her friends root out the culprits when the elderly in a retirement community are being scammed and swindled, but this leads to a further course of events...

Poppy takes action along with Iris and Violet; Matt, who is the head sleuth and also her daughter's ex-boyfriend is away shooting a film abroad but returns later. The characters are very engaging, their presence jumping from the pages and Lee Hollis, a gifted storyteller, gives me everything I desire from a fantastic cozy mystery making it really easy to escape right into the compelling, richly satirical story. Poppy, Violet, and Iris are vibrant women in their 60s and I adored their liveliness, interaction and their supportiveness for each other. The mystery itself was intriguing and chock-a-block with red herrings and suspects that kept me guessing. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Poppy Harmon and the Backstabbing Bachelor and I can't wait to read the first in the series, Poppy Harmon Investigates.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Kensington Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I love all these cozy mysteries up with Poppy and her crew. Lee Hollis is one of my favorite mystery writers and she doesn’t disappoint this time. This book definitely had an intriguing premise and it was hard for me to put it down. I can’t wait to read more of these stories. This is definitely a must for anybody that likes a good fun cozy mystery

Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Poppy and the Desert Flowers Detective Agency have just successfully completed a case where the baddies were targeting the elderly and robbing them out of house and home. Then strange people start appearing in Poppy's life and strange things start happening. It appears that this gang that Poppy and the Desert Flowers has just put behind bars has a long reach and Poppy is in danger.

Poppy is tenacious and when things blow up in Palm Springs, she and Matt follow a lead that lands Matt on a reality "Bachelor" TV show with a cold-blooded killer also in the cast. Again, Poppy dons a very convincing disguise and she and Matt ferret out the murderer, but not before Matt loses his heart to the lovely Bachelorette. 3 1/2-Stars

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of POPPY HARMON AND THE BACKSTABBING BACHELOR (Book 4 of the Desert Flowers Mysteries) by Lee Hollis in exchange for an honest review. I liked it. I continue to enjoy Poppy's antics and investigations and look forward to the next book in the series. I recommend this book to fans of the series and the series to fans of cozy murder mysteries.

#PoppyHarmonandtheBackstabbingBachelor #NetGalley

Poppy and the Backstabbing Bachelor: A Desert Flowers Mystery
by Lee Hollis
Kensington
April 2022

Review by Cynthia Chow

The ladies of the Desert Flowers Detective agency are high off of a win, having successfully gone undercover to capture a crime ring scamming Palms Springs seniors in a retirement community. A vengeful Tanya Cook whistles an ominous tune as she’s hauled away by the cops, but Poppy Harmon has other things on her mind. After her acting career dwindled and her husband left her bankrupt, Poppy was able to funnel her experience playing a secretary on an 80s television PI show into her new occupation as a real-life professional private investigator. Working alongside her friends Iris Becker and Violet Hogan, their enlistment of aspiring actor Matt Cameron to be the face of the company for sexist, ageist clients ironically helped him attain an acting job on a big-budget Netflix movie with the Rock. Bringing them all down off of the high of their successes is when a friend borrowing Poppy’s car is run off of the road, and a very shady whistling stranger seems to be stalking her. As events escalate it seems like a good time for Poppy to get out of town, and literally play dead.

Following a trail of clues to her stalker leads the Desert Flowers to a Bachelorette-type reality competition show, where there is a convenient opening for an eligible bachelor. With Matt back in town and nursing a heart still wounded from his breakup with Poppy’s daughter, he becomes a handsome candidate to go undercover along with his “Aunt Bea” as his advice companion. Dodging a predatory producer while investigating the sketchy identities of the bachelors is something Poppy and the Flowers are becoming adept at handling, but it’s Matt who’s in danger of becoming too invested in winning his show. A barely NASA-graduate “astronaut” and a rodeo clown “rodeo star” are among the fluffed-up descriptors used to categorize the contestants for the Instagram Bachelorette, but with one of them being a possible killer the stakes are higher than just winning the coveted rose.

This fourth in the series is always at its best when depicting the seedier sides of the glamorous entertainment business. Poppy’s years on the top-rated Jack Colt, PI television show have given her a realistic, slightly jaded, perspective on the Hollywood life, but she still appreciates the lifestyle it gave her. Matt continues to be so refreshing in his appreciation of the Flowers Detective Agency ladies, with Detective Lamar Jordan being the one who tends to dismiss them while taking advantage – and credit- for their success. The twist of his wife’s own aspirations as a designer and her fanning on Poppy is priceless, especially when it comes to her wearing one of Lynn Jordan’s more avant-garde creations. The vast television writing experiences of one of the co-authors are always on full display in the behind-the-scenes moments of television shows and its creators, delivering moments of hilarity as well as deep insight. Readers looking for a genuinely thrilling mystery along with a scalpel-sharp satire of dating show competitions will be thrilled by this latest entry in the series featuring these amazing Golden Girls private detectives.

Poppy is a retired actress who now runs a detective agency is Palm Springs. Poppy and her friends have just solved a case involving elder theft. However, now Poppy is under fire, the perps want her dead. Follow Poppy and her friends in discovering the wannabe murderer. Great mystery, enjoyable characters.