Kirkus Reviews QR Code
MULCH by Ann Ripley

MULCH

by Ann Ripley

Pub Date: June 20th, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11029-4
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Gamely establishing still another garden after her husband, Bill, an ill-concealed State Department spook, moves her back to suburban DC, Louise Eldridge gathers two dozen bags of leaves from her Sylvan Valley neighbors' trash to use as organic mulch. Maybe a little too organic, since when she and her daughter Janie spread the contents of those plastic bags, they discover the chainsawed arms, legs, and torso of a woman the police can't identify. But we can: We know it's neighbor Peter Hoffman's too-clinging mistress Kristina Weeren, whom Peter strangled when her existence threatened his confirmation as undersecretary of Defense. Now, if only Louise could remember the telltale detail about the night she collected those leaves.... A first novel whose slender plot leaves its smart, appealing heroine all dressed up with no place to go.