Garden of Malice
When Roz Howard, a young professor of English at Vassar, is hired to edit the just-discovered diaries and letters of the famed author Lady Viola Montfort-Snow, it seems like the job of a lifetime. But all is not what it seems at Montfort Abbey, the restored medieval estate where Lady Viola, an avid gardener, had created some of the most spectacular–and bizarre–gardens in England.
Along with Montfort Abbey, Giles Montfort-Snow, Lady Viola's son and Roz's employer, has inherited an odd assortment of people living within its grounds, all of whom are stunned to learn that Lady Viola's papers are to be published. These include Viola's old friend Cedric North, an aging pianist, and his wife Florence: the scientist Hugh Badgett and his shrewish wife, Beatrice, his timid housekeeper Mrs. Farthing and her mysterious fly-by-night relative, Francesca, not to mention a peculiar pair of resident gardeners,Corey and Stella. Last but not least, there's the visiting artist-in-residence, Alan Stewart. It quickly becomes clear that one of more of these people will do anything, even murder, to keep the papers from being published. Caught in a race against time, the machinations of a devious criminal and a growing romantic interest, Roz is determined to find the truth, even if–as she suspects–some terrible secret is hidden in the writings of Lady Viola Montfort Snow.
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