Pru receives an email from an old Texas colleague asking
her to be the liaison for a garden buildup at the Chelsea
Flower Show, the world's most prestigious garden event.
The
Austin Rock Garden Society (ARGS) has a spot in this
year's
London show, but the group from Austin will be delayed in
getting to England. Pru is honored and so excited. She
packs her bags and heads to London. Her husband
Christopher
will follow in a few days.
Pru meets Chiv, plant grower and rock wall builder
extraordinaire, at the plot of ground where the lovely
bluebonnet garden resembling a Texas country hillside will
emerge for the show. She learns that there are many people
involved in the design, funding and implementation of this
project. Twyla Woodford is the mastermind behind this
project and president of the ARGS and will relieve Pru of
her duties as soon as she arrives. Twyla doesn't arrive
with the rest of the ARGS group. She comes a couple days
later.
Pru meets Twyla alone late one afternoon at the garden
plot
and has a nice chat with her. She learns that someone
wants
to make changes to the garden and Twyla is not happy about
it. However, Twyla assures Pru that she will make
everything work out in the end. Twyla is found murdered in
the garden the next morning.
THE BLUEBONNET BETRAYAL is written with very detailed yet
realistic explanation and description of every person and
scene. There are a plethora of players in this sensational
cozy mystery, and you almost need a score card to keep up
with who's who. Twyla has assembled two ex-lovers, one
ex-
husband, a former student and a unique assortment of
Texans
to produce her bluebonnet garden. Not everyone is playing
for the same reason. Pru's husband Christopher, a former
detective chief inspector with the London Metropolitan
Police, comes in undercover to help Pru find Twyla's
murderer. Their antics are hilarious and the plot takes
several twists and turns in tracking down the killer.
There
is a lot of dissention between many of the characters, and
everyone is a suspect until they can be ruled out
completely.
THE BLUEBONNET BETRAYAL is a delightful, easy
summer read in Marty Wingate's A Potting Shed Mystery
series. You gardeners out there will certainly enjoy it.
Before each chapter, Ms. Wingate includes snippets of the
ARGS By-laws or Tips and Trends from the group's
newsletters. They are an added laugh as well, once you get
to know the characters.
Bestselling author Marty Wingate “plants clever clues
with a dash of romantic spice,” raves Mary Daheim. Now
Wingate’s inimitable gardening heroine, Pru Parke, is
importing a precious bloom from Texas—and she won’t let a
vicious murder stop her.
Pru’s life in England is coming full circle. A Texas
transplant, she’s married to the love of her life, thriving
in the plum gardening position she shares with her long-lost
brother, and prepping a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit
featuring the beloved bluebonnets of the Texas hill country.
Technically, Twyla Woodford, the president of a gardening
club in the Lone Star State, is in charge of the London
event, but Pru seems to be the one getting her hands dirty.
When they finally do meet, Pru senses a kindred spirit—until
Twyla turns up dead.
Although Twyla’s body was half buried under a wall in their
display, Pru remains determined to mount a spectacular show.
Twyla would have insisted. So Pru recruits her husband,
former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, to go
undercover and do a bit of unofficial digging into Twyla’s
final hours. If Pru has anything to say about it, this
killer is going to learn the hard way not to mess with Texas.
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