Summer Garden Murder

Ann Ripley's garden mysteries have charmed reviewers and fans alike and their green thumbed, fearless heroine has been called "one of mysterydom's more engaging amateur sleuths." (Kirkus Reviews). Now, Louise is back and she's up to her neck in murder. Summer is the season for disquiet in Louise's Sylvan Valley cul de sac, and the tradition continues when an uninvited guest crashes a neighborhood soiree, Five years ago, Louise identified Peter Hoffman as the "mulch murderer." Now he's been released from a Virginia state mental institution. Leaving the party doesn't put enough distance between Louise and Hoffman, who has a thing or two to say to her--and actually has the nerve to follow her home to air his grievances. Shaken by the incident. Louise and family decide to take a little R&R at the beach in the hope that Hoffman will have moved on by the time they return. When they get back from vacation, Hoffman's moved on all right--but not in quite the way Louise had hoped. He's been missing for seven days, and Louise is the one who finds him...buried beneath her native azalea patch. Things go from bad to worse once the police learn that someone saw Louise planting one of the nights she was supposed to be out of town. Now, with more than just her television career in jeopardy, Louise will have to dig up some serious clues to bring a killer to light--before another person winds up as fertilizer.