The second group of plus-size sleuths are determined to lose weight and, in the process, they have gained back their self-esteem. They are determined and stubborn.
In this group, we find the
Bretta Solomon series by Janis Harrison. Bretta was always told that there was a thin woman inside of her. She's found that woman by losing a hundred pounds, however her husband Carl isn't around to enjoy it as he has died of a heart attack in the previous year. At night, Bretta keeps the bedroom she shared with Carl locked up and sleeps on a sofa. During the day, she throws herself into work at her flower shop. In the first book of the series,
Roots of Murder, Bretta is deeply disturbed by the one-car accident that killed three teenagers. When Isaac Miller, an Amish grower who supplied all the florists in River City, Missouri, dies unexpectedly in suspicious circumstances, his brother Evan, asks Bretta to look into the death. In the second book,
Murder Sets Seed, we find the previous six months have been tough on Bretta. Upset over having regained some of the weight she worked so hard to lose, Bretta has thrown herself into her latest project: the restoration of her new home, the historic Beauchamp mansion. Bretta and her flower shop staff have been working overtime, decorating for the upcoming public open house. But a week before the big event, catastrophe strikes: the mansion's former owner, River City matriarch Cameo Beauchamp is strangled in Bretta's ballroom filled with people during a momentary blackout.
Ellie Bernstein has lost 55 pounds and is now the group leader for the diet support group, Weight Winners. In the first book of this series by Denise Dietz, Throw Darts at a Cheesecake, "accidents" start striking members of Weight Winners, one after another, as each dieter approaches her target weight. With homicide detective Peter Miller, Ellie gets caught in the investigation especially when it becomes apparent that she is being stalked. In the next book, Beat Up a Cookie, Ellie, eating and watching M*A*S*H reruns, suspects a serial killer when people who look like characters in the series start dying. Then she realizes that, after her weight loss, she looks too much like Hot Lips. The series is written by Denise Dietz. The book titles, by the way, are taken from the late Gilda Radner: "Eating is self-punishment; punish the food instead. Strangle a loaf of Italian bread. Throw darts at a cheesecake. Chain a lamb chop to the bed. Beat up a cookie."
