Pru Parke is a well-known gardener in England. Although she was born in Texas, it was the British gardens that stole her heart and helped her make a home for herself on the other side of the world. And now the celebrated gardens of Batsford Bede in the Cotswolds are badly in need of repair, and Pru has been called in to consult on how to refurbish the garden by the closest person Bede has to family, his ersatz neice, Coral Summersun.
Coral first meets with Pru in the garden office, and Pru is completely distracted by everything around her. She sees the library of books on flowers, herbs, and garden design. She sees the blueprints that Bede and his gardening partner Constance (Coral's late mother) used to plan. And she sees the gardening journals that Bede himself wrote while planting and creating the gardens. While Coral seems uninterested in everything around them, Pru understands the wealth of information in the office and can't help herself from grabbing the journals off the shelf once Coral says she doesn't mind. After all, Bede's gardens were a sort of national treasure in their heyday. His use of Arts and Crafts style, modeled on the designs of William Morris, was innovative and ingenious.
But when Pru discovers Bede's lifeless body under one of the garden statues, clearly not by accident, it's going to take all of Pru's cleverness to help find and catch the killer. Fortunately for her, her policeman husband has come to the Cotswolds with her and can lend a much-needed hand to the strapped local force. With a quirky inkeeper taking care of them and a village filled with fascinating potential suspects, Pru and her husband Christopher will have to dig deep to unearth the answers they need.
Marty Wingate's Best-Laid Plants is the latest in the Potting Shed Mysteries, and it's a lovely trip to the gardens of England and all their charms. Pru and her husband are fun and smart, and the villagers add more than a little humor and delight to the pages of this mystery. This is the gardening cozy series that I have been looking for, and I can't wait for another trip to the gardens of England with all their majesty and loveliness.
Galleys for Best-Laid Plants were provided by Random House Publishing Group - Alibi through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.