The Christmas Garden Affair: A Gardening Mystery

Great literature--no. But this was an immensely fun romp and skewer of the gardening world and thinly veiled references to garden figures we know and either love or hate. As a professional gardener, I laughed out loud more than once at her references to the both insular and welcoming world of horticulture. First I'd heard of Ann Ripley and I'll definitely dip into her other titles!:) Enjoy!

Louise Eldridge is aggravated when sexy home & garden queen, Bunny Bainfield, sweeps up all of the great ratings for her show "Bunny in the Garden," thanks to her style of wearing low-cut tops, and short shorts, while filming her show; while Louise works hard to keep her home and garden show on the air. Louise can't stand to see someone like Bunny raking in the money for exploitation of a great hobby, but when Louise realizes that she and Bunny have both received invitations to the First Lady's Christmas Conference on native plants, she realizes that someone must hate Bunny even more than she does, for Bunny is poisoned, and ends up dead. Louise soon begins uncovering secrets about the many suspects, and Bunny herself, and knows that it's up to her to solve the mystery, before the killer strikes again.This is my first Ann Ripley mystery, and I must admit, I am not disappointed. Louise is a fun character, who keeps you interested in reading on, to see what will happen next. Adding the enjoyable world of home and gardening to the mystery is just an added plus. A charming who-done-it in which all mystery lovers will enjoy.Erika Sorocco

Bunny Bainfield, like her namesake, is a gardener's nemesis. More specifically, a nemsis to the professional gardening industry including academia, publishing, TV, distributors, and designers. Bunny's talent for self promotion, lack of scruples, and comfort with flaunting her sexuality add up to a formidable competitor who is beginning to dominate the gardening industry. She seems unstoppable, even acheiving a relationship with the new First Lady based on a mutual interest in native plants. Unfortunately for Bunny, she meets up with an enemy unwilling to stop at anything, including poisioning Bunny at a state dinner.Louise Eldridge is a gardener of a milder type, with a gardening program on Public Television and a warm and loving family. Louise has dabbled in murder investigations in the past, and jumps right into this case. As part of the investigation, Louise finds herself questioning old friends and new, and seeing her relationship with her peers change as suspicion and unease with the police begins to rise. Ultimately, Louise comes face to face with the killer, and finds herself questioning her own preconceptions. "The Christmas Garden Affair" is made special by the intertwining relationships between people in the somewhat insular gardening trade. Louise Eldridge is a delightful heroine, and even non-gardeners will find the dicussions about native plants interesting. I recommend this book for anyone that enjoys cozy mysteries, female sleuths, and / or gardening.

There have been no recent homicide investigation in Louise Eldridge's life, but the TV personality has seen her ratings on her PBS gardening show plummet since the vivacious and sexy Bunny Bainfield hosts the same kind of show in the same time slot though on a different channel. Both Louise and Bunny are invited to the new First Lady's Christmas Garden Gala, along with other knowledgeable garden experts who Louise wants to line up to appear on her show.From the time she arrives at the event, Louise hears one person after another bad mouth Bunny. She has alienated everyone in the plant and flower world so it really doesn't come as much of a shock that somebody hates Bunny enough to poison her at the eve of the conference. In her own subtle way, Louise starts an investigation, independent of the police, to discover who killed Bunny. Louise always seems to forget that she puts her life in danger when she plays detective and this time it is no different.THE CHRISTMAS GARDEN AFFAIR is an invigorating cozy that is character driven. The heroine uses her intellect to weed out some suspects and add others but all the time she is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It's hard for Louise to quickly finger a suspect because there are so many suspects with viable motives, which means the audience, once the reader overcomes the shock of Louise budding in, has an entertaining amateur sleuth tale filled with gardening tips.Harriet Klausner