Book

Death in the Garden Club

by Riley Lockwood

When beloved Garden Club member Eleanor Whitfield is found dead during the annual flower show, the small town is shaken to its roots. With Sheriff Morrison and county detective Sarah Chen on the case, retired botanist and amateur sleuth Lily Hart cannot help but look a little closer at the petals, the pruning shears, and the long-buried secrets that surround her neighbor's prize-winning dahlias. Lily knows gardens better than anyone. She tends the community seed library, remembers every cultivar her late husband Henry ever coaxed into bloom, and notices the small details others walk right past. As she questions club members over cups of tea at Mabel's Tea Room, a tangle of motives begins to emerge: a treasurer with too many secrets, a rival with a decades-old grudge, a quiet widower who tends a memorial garden, and a historian who remembers what the rest of the village would rather forget. Each clue leads Lily deeper into a fragrant world of floral arrangements, friendly gossip, and whispered confessions. A supposedly extinct heirloom dahlia, a sealed envelope in a church safe, and a forgotten time capsule beneath the Witness Tree all hint that Eleanor's death is only the latest bloom in a much older mystery. Someone in the Garden Club has been hiding in plain sight, and Lily must decide how far she is willing to dig. Puzzle-driven and free of graphic violence, Death in the Garden Club is a charming standalone cozy mystery full of heartwarming community connections. Settle into your favorite reading chair, brew a pot of tea, and join Lily Hart as she pieces together the clues before the killer can prune the evidence for good.