The Christmas Garden Affair: A Gardening Mystery - Softcover

Ripley, Ann

3.29

126 ratings by Goodreads

9781575667782: The Christmas Garden Affair: A Gardening Mystery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575667789 ISBN 13: 9781575667782

Publisher: Kensington, 2003

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When Bunny Bainfield, the sexy host of "Bunny in the Garden," is murdered at the First Lady's exclusive Christmas conference on native plants, Louise Eldrige, star of her own PBS garden show, must weed through a wealth of suspects to catch a killer. Reprint.

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From Publishers Weekly:

You don't have to know an echinops from an epimedium to enjoy Ripley's (Harvest of Murder; Death of a Garden Pest, etc.) cast of characters, plucked from every niche of the horticultural world. Louise Eldridge, her ratings for her PBS show "Gardening with Nature" sinking due to sexy newcomer Bunny Bainfield's rival program, "Bunny in the Garden," is dismayed to find her competitor also attending the first lady-elect's Christmas conference emphasizing native plants, held at a restored colonial inn in Alexandria, Va. Gathered in the inn's crowded ballroom are many guests who have reason to hate Bunny or fear her methods and her success: the world's top floral designer, Bunny's glowering sidekick of suspected Stasi origins, a successful garden writer and publisher, a radical environmentalist, a bureaucrat, dignified academics and nursery owners. Bunny's drive to monopolize the nursery business and horn in on the design and publishing fields, her tinkering with America's native stock to make everything bigger and brighter, to say nothing of her nasty manners and brassy sexuality, all portend her demise, courtesy of a glass of poisoned wine. Louise, a sometime sleuth, investigates on her own, with and without the approval of the local police. A second murder adds zest to the puzzle, while the caricatures of national celebrities will raise more than a few smiles. As the cat in the Santa's cap and Christmas tree with death's head snowflakes on the jacket suggests, mystery fans can expect plenty of murderous holiday fun.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

British gardening doyenne Bunny Bainfield is no shrinking violet. Bawdy, brazen, and belligerent, Bunny is a blight upon the American garden scene, and her ruthless plans for market domination make her a thorn in the side of everyone from the industry's top nurserymen to influential publishers. Now the budding popularity of her HGTV program even threatens the continuation of Louise Eldridge's own PBS gardening show. As the cream of the gardening crop convenes in Washington for a conference hosted by the incoming First Lady, Bunny seizes the opportunity to dig up even more dirt on her competition. When she is poisoned at the opening reception, no one is saddened and all are suspected of plotting her murder. Armed with a fertile imagination, pseudosleuth Eldridge takes it upon herself to weed out the culprit from the field of Bunny's enemies. While interrogating the growing list of suspects, Eldridge unwittingly places herself directly in the killer's path. Ripley's hardy heroine blossoms in this latest Louise Eldridge mystery, her most accomplished yet. Carol Haggas
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