In this, the second Bea Goode mystery, a visiting Australian astronomer is totally eclipsed by the U.S. Army Observatory. This follows on the heels of a staff member's death by flying pumpkin. As one of the characters put it, "The poor fellow was squashed."

A Fine Climate for Murder, the third in the series of Bea Goode "cozies," finds Bea chairing a committee on her agency's recommended reaction to global warming. Things get really hot when a botanist is murdered, a bureaucrat is punched in the schnozz, and a boa constrictor slithers into the narrative.