THE GARDENER'S PLOT

Sometimes rivalries from the past never fade away.

Maggie Walker has been drawn back to her hometown of Marlowe, Massachusetts, by warm memories of her recently deceased grandmother. In the grocery store, she runs into Catherine Whitacker, who has been mean to her since seventh grade. Catherine's husband, Police Chief Sam Whitacker, dated Maggie in high school, providing yet another reason for her mistreatment. When Maggie's grandmother’s estate was being settled, Maggie had bid for her Victorian home, which none of the other legatees wanted, and that money went into the residual estate. Now her cousin Simon is demanding more money, which he insists she can give him by selling the place to Catherine’s half brother, pushy developer Carl Henderson. Meanwhile, Maggie’s developed a friendship with Violet Bloom, whom she’s helped with plans for a community garden. The day of the garden's opening, Maggie finds a note from Violet warning that she may be late. So Maggie begins the event on her own, only to find a body partially buried in one of the food plots. Her best friend, Sally, provides much-needed support when the body is identified as that of Carl Henderson. In the absence of Violet, who’s vanished without a trace, Catherine and her equally snarky friends all but accuse Maggie of murder. Henderson’s development schemes antagonized many people, but Maggie, who can’t help feeling that she’s the main suspect, sets to work to prove her innocence and find Violet. Both the state police detective and Sam warn her to stop, but she continues nosing around, putting herself and Sally in danger from a desperate killer.

All those obvious suspects give the plucky heroine plenty of scope for her investigation.