Summer Garden Murder

If you are a readers who loves gardening, as well as a complex mystery and a very appealing amateur dectective you'll want to read SUMMER GARDEN MURDER. The protagonist is Louise Eldridge, PBS Garden show host and home gardner. Louise and her husband are at a neighborhood party when she is shocked to see Peter Hoffman, a murderer she caught five years ago (in the book Mulch). He has spent four years in a mental hospital in the Blue Ridge Mountains and has come back to the old neighborhood after serving his time. At the party he comes up to Louise and makes it seem as if he and Louise are going to have a meeting later on to iron out their past differences. Louise is deeply shaken by that encounter and when he later breaks into her home and threatens her. The police do not believe her story about the break in, telling her that she was the one who invited him, and that party goers confirmed her invitation, so she and her family decide to leave town for a few days, because Louise is so distraught by the encounter. Meanwhile, Hoffman's wife Phyllis, overhears a conversation where Hoffman plans to sell his arms factory and leave the country leaving her behind. While Louise and her family are gone, Peter disappears and an anonymous tip leads the police to Louise's garden where they find his body. When another sleazy friend of Hoffman's is also found buried on her property, Louise becomes the prime suspect for both murders and she might go to jail unless she finds the killer. Ann Ripley has written another great garden mystery full of intrigue and prime suspects. A pleasant addition to all her books is the gardening essays that are interspersed throughout. The reader is free to read these or not, but they are informative and pleasant to read. Buyers should try to read these books in chronological order, because the natural progression of Louise's friends and family dynamics, as well as the growth of Louise's career, will add knowledge and pleasure.

TV show host and gardener Louse Eldridge is shocked when she sees Peter Hoffman, a murderer who she apprehended five years ago. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent four years in a mental hospital in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southern Virginia. He has the audacity to show his face at his old stomping grounds and makes it seem like he and Louise are going to have a meeting to iron out their differences. Before that can happen, his wife Phyllis overhears a conversation where he sells his arms factory before he leaves the country. His wife is left with the house and a stipend. Soon after that meeting Peter disappears and an anonymous tip leads the police to Louise's garden where they find his body. When another corpse is found on her property, it looks like Louise might go to jail unless she finds the killer. Readers who love good, complex and refreshing amateur sleuth tales without any blood or gore will want to read SUMMER GARDEN MURDER. The protagonists is a plucky and independent sort not content to let others find the murderer but is determined to ferret out the person herself because it is her life that is on the line. Ann Ripley has written another exciting garden mystery that is so absorbing readers will read it in one sitting. Harriet Klausner