The Garden Tour Affair: A Gardening Mystery

Everything's coming up corpses....Louise Eldridge is taking her popular television show, Gardening with Nature, on location to film a garden tour at the historic Litchfield Falls Inn. It's a weekend in the country that promises rest, relaxation, and some of New England's most beautiful gardens.But the local grapevine whispers of warring lovers, botanical scams, academic scandal, and family finagling. The tension is so thick you can hardly cut it with a scythe. And then the uneasy group of assembled guests begin to meet with the most unfortunate of accidents.Suddenly Louise suspects that someone is playing Grim Reaper in the Litchfield Falls paradise. How many more guests--including one nosy garden show host--are about to be cut down?Amazon.com ReviewAnn Ripley's dirt-digging amateur sleuth, Louise Eldridge, plans a weekend trip to Connecticut with her husband Bill, their peevish teenage daughter Janie, Janie's boyfriend Chris, and his mother Nora. Louise is hoping to escape the heat and the constant stream of dead bodies that keep turning up near her suburban Washington, D.C., home. (See Ripley's previous three books in this garden-happy series: Mulch, Death of a Garden Pest, and Death of a Political Plant.) Not surprisingly, the garden tour--which Louise is televising for her PBS show, "Gardening with Nature"--turns out to be a busman's holiday. First the elderly hostess at the upscale Litchfield Falls Inn meets with a suspicious though miraculously not serious accident right after the bevy of bluestocking guests have introduced themselves. Next, an undercurrent of barely hidden lusts and professional resentments breaks loose when a tempestuously charming botany professor has a fatal fall while climbing a local mountain. Suspicion falls immediately on the Gasparras, a plant-breeding couple who have accused the professor of stealing their research into the creation of a red iris, and on Mark and Sandy Post, former students of the professor who are clearly hiding a puzzling ménage à trois. But Louise barely has time to scan the guests for guilty expressions before another body is found. Naturally, there are a number of dead-end garden paths that Louise and her cohorts must wander down before the identity of the killer--or killers--is revealed.Ripley's series appears to be picking up steam. Her characters haven't quite come to full life, but the plot of The Garden Tour Affair is tight and interesting. If the cogent gardening essays scattered throughout the book are meant to be indicative of the tone of Louise's TV show, she must be a dynamo onscreen. The essays are punchy and fun, covering topics from potagers to genetic engineering, and illuminating seemingly minor plot points nicely. --Barrie TrinkleFrom Publishers WeeklyA historic and picturesque country inn; a weekend with impeccably respectable guests; an impending garden tour?as this brisk and thickly plotted mystery demonstrates, these elements add up to a perfect setting for a murder. Louise Eldridge, host of the PBS show Gardening with Nature, returns for her fourth adventure (after Death of a Political Plant, Forecasts, Feb. 23). She and her family (a feisty daughter; a supportive husband) set out for a weekend of work and relaxation, staying at the Litchfield Falls Inn while she films her program. When one of the inn's guests, a renowned professor of botany who specializes in plant engineering, dies after a fall from a cliff, it looks like an accident. But when another hotel guest, a quietly deferential young wife, is found dead at the base of a waterfall, the Connecticut State Police become interested. Louise, who digs deeply into both gardens and investigations, rounds up her family and friends to pry. There's no lack of suspects?possible motives range from the theft of secret botanical research to risky romantic entanglements?and myriad clever hotel guests keep the waters suitably murky. The ultimate clue comes from?where else??a garden, and as this enjoyable story (laced with informative gardening lectures) comes to a close, the reader will be gratified to know that Ripley has sown the seeds for her next tale. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.