Product Description

Sarah Deane dirties her hands in a transatlantic murder investigation, as a European garden tour turns deadly...

Much to her dismay, Sarah has been roped into accompanying her abrasive Aunt Julia on a tour of Europe's most famous gardens. The trip takes a bad turn when the tour's leader, garden expert Ellen Trevino, fails to meet the group for their departure. That and the strange behavior of her fellow tour members plant seeds of suspicion in Sarah's mind. but her bi-continental investigating-with the help of husband Alex at home in Maine-could have Sarah herself pushing up the daisies...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #969191 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

From Library Journal
A free garden club trip to Europe for series sleuth Sarah Deane ends up testing the sleuthing abilities of both her and her husband, Alex. Murder, attempted murder, and suspicious behavior: another cozy work in an established series.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Teacher/sleuth Sarah Deane (Dolly Is Dead, 1995, etc.) and her rugged Aunt Julia, a horsebreeder--State of Mainers, both--have joined a group tour of European gardens, led by horticultural expert Ellen Trevino and Whirlaway Tours director Barbara Baxter. Things go wrong from day one, when Ellen misses the plane's departure from Boston and turns up, wrapped in plastic and stabbed to death, on a Maine highway exit road, her car nowhere in sight. The group has arrived in England, meanwhile, and, after absorbing the shock of Ellen's death, goes about its sightseeing business. Sarah is kept up to date on the murder investigation by telephone reports from her doctor-husband Alex, a confidant of Deputy Sheriff Mike Laaka's, and before long she has plenty to report from her end: her ransacked room; the sudden depression of the elderly Hopper sisters; strange behavior involving underutilized cameras; the arrival of substitute garden-guru Henry Ruggles, who's shortly rescued from a drowning ``accident''; and a visit from Barbara's brother Gregory, a dealer in exotic arts and crafts. All the bits and pieces, and a lot more, coalesce--sort of--as the group arrives in Bellagio, Italy, and a final absurd incident brings a merciful end to the tour and to this totally unconvincing scenario. There are one or two characters who might catch the reader's interest here--mainly Amy, a teenaged would-be writer of mysteries- -and some places half-heartedly evoked, but Sarah and Julia's busy- bodying becomes repellent halfway through, and the plotting is from never-never land. The author has done much better on her home territory. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"This is perfect fireside reading." --The New York Times Book Review on Dolly is Dead

"Brimming with quirky New England characters, offbeat charm, and a murder-solving husband-and-wife team whom readers have come to adore, here is the delightful eighth mystery in J.S. Borthwick's Sarah Deane series, brilliantly rendered with a 'keen eye and sharp pen.'" --The New York Times Book Review

"If you can't get away for European garden tour of your own this summer, then sit yourself down by your own and open this fun and surprising novel." --Maine Sunday Telegram
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Very complicated plot but thouroughly enjoyable.
I love the way this author writes. She has some different plots so you aren't bored. And they keep you up late at night to finish them!Great read!

Seemed a bit long.
My favorite part of this book was the setting. Although not a botanist at heart, I enjoyed the descriptions of the inns, hotels, gardens, etc., that are a part of this European trip. Sara Deane and her aunt Julia find themselves filling in a couple of vacancies on a European garden tour when the tour leader ends up taking a tumble down her cellar stairs and can't go. Then, Ellen Travino, a colleague of Sara's and the botanical 'specialist' who is also supposed to go, ends up missing and presumed dead. Everybody in the tour group is under suspicion, and Sara puts herself right in the middle of everything. Although the story seemed kind of long (by the time the book ended I was more than ready) it was still an enjoyable read.

Okay, but not her best
I've read all of the books in this series, and while I wasn't completely disappointed in this book, there were some areas for improvement.

I didn't get much of a sense of the gardens. Based on the title, you'd think they would be almost a character on their own, but they were kind of glossed over.

The characters were fun, interesting, and basically well developed, but the actions of one character at the end of the book seemed to come out of left field. I even backtracked a little to see if I'd missed something, and I couldn't connect the dots.

Some annoying grammatical/typographical errors distracted me, too, but that's a minor point.

All in all, an enjoyable read.