On location in Colorado for her syndicated television show, Gardening with Nature, filming alpine butterflies and avalanche lilies, Louise Eldridge can see why this beautiful terrain is as precious as gold. Then the pure Rocky Mountain air is fouled by the discovery of elderly rancher Jimmy Porter's body, shot to death and draped like a coyote carcass over his own backyard fence. Louise soon discovers a staggering list of suspects, since Jimmy's plan to sell his 13,000-acre ranch to a government preservation program left a lot of family, friends, and competitors with much to lose. Throw in a second death, a closed nuclear plant, a CIA investigation involving Louise's husband, and a bullet hole in her cowboy hat, and Louise suddenly realizes she's onto a killer as hardy as the native skeleton weed-and seemingly as indestructible.From Publishers WeeklyThis time around, Louise Eldridge, Ripley's amateur snoop from four previous mysteries, quickly discovers that land is gold in Colorado and that people will stop at nothing to control it. Almost as soon as she arrives in the state to shoot her syndicated TV show, Gardening with Nature, she finds herself embroiled in a dangerous struggle over a 13,000-acre ranch: environmentalists want it designated as an "open space"; developers want it for themselves. When Louise and her cameraman discover the murdered body of the ranch's elderly owner, Porter, she begins her own investigation. Her diverse list of suspects includes the sheriff, a good old boy who, along with countless others, has profited handsomely from land deals in the past. The stakes turn deadly when Porter's daughter dies in a suspicious accident, someone shoots at Louise and a sophisticated Austrian millionaire attempts to run her off a treacherous mountain road. Ripley's plots have become increasingly complicated with each book--this one has as many side issues as bindweed has seeds--and her one-dimensional heroine may fail to engage the reader. Nonetheless, the author projects a strong sense of place and is firmly grounded in her issues: her trademark essays, interspersed as tension-breakers throughout the book, reveal her understanding of Western horticulture. (May) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review"Certain to appeal to mystery readers with green thumbs!"—Denver Post"The next time your yard calls out for a good weeding, nurture the gardener first. Plop down on the lawn chair, ignore the June bugs, and enjoy the read."—USA Today"A wonderful way to pass those gray days when you can't get into your garden."—Chicago Sun-Times

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.

The star of public television's top garden show, Louise Eldridge is something of a celebrity. But when a dead body is planted in her backyard, she's in for notoriety of a different kind...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...

Louise Eldridge is taking her public television garden show on the road--to Hawaii! But the tropical paradise isn't so idyllic once murder makes an unexpected appearance. . .Lush with hibiscus, ficus, plumeria, and monkeypod trees, the island of Kauai is the perfect place for Louise to film a few episodes of Gardening with Nature.After their shoot at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Louise unwinds with a sunset walk on the beach. But at the base of a cliff, she makes a grisly discovery: the battered body of Matthew Flynn, a noted botanist. Her attempts to save his life are fruitless, and--after seeing his injuries firsthand--Louise is convinced that his death was no accident.Now it'll take some serious digging for Louise to unearth more clues, but she'll have to be very careful, because this is one killer who is ready to plant her in the ground. . ."Neatly plotted. . .Ripley's green thumb fans will relish the paradise...

Ann Ripley's horticultural heroine, Louise Eldridge, enchanted mystery lovers of all varieties in Death of a Garden Pest and Mulch.  Now she returns in a witty new tale of muckraking, murder, and deeply buried--and very dangerous--secrets.  Louise's TV show, Gardening with Nature, has made her a celebrity, sweeping her from lawn-mower commercials all the way to the president's National Environmental Commission.  Not that Louise is about to get her hands dirty in the mudslinging campaigns of an election year.  As usual, her main concerns are right in her own backyard.Here, in Washington's suburban Sylvan Valley, she is subject to an unwelcome infestation of houseguests that threatens to crowd out her houseplants.  Least welcome of all are three bossy busybodies in town for the Perennial Plant Society convention, who fete Louise as official "Plant Person of the Year" but press her to slash back the sweetgums and swamp oaks that give her beloved garden its pristine air.Her grin-and-bear-it mood is lightened, however, by the arrival of an old flame.  Twenty years ago, in the first bloom of youth, Louise fell heavily for Jay McCormick's crooked smile and crusading charm.  Now, he's an investigative journalist looking worriedly over his shoulder.  Jay confides that he's come on two distinct undercover missions.  One is to ensure that his ex-wife, a high-powered political lawyer, doesn't cheat on the rules for custody of their young daughter.  Around the other, he raises an impenetrable thicket of secrecy.But Jay's cover is blown when he surfaces, a nibbled corpse, in a neighbor's ornamental fishpond.  Who put him there? And what was the mysterious story he was investigating? Only Louise can unearth the trail that leads from a missing computer to a pistol-packing intruder trampling her purple-spotted toad lilies to evidence hidden where only a hardcore gardener could find it.  Soon she's digging up enough dirt--social, marital, and political--to uproot some of Washington's top players...if she doesn't get herself nipped in the bud first.Ripening suspense, a thorny plot, and plenty of gardening tips make Death of a Political Plant a perfect bouquet of murder, mystery, and mayhem.