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A champagne reception in a Victorian orangery. A prominent developer dead from a wasp sting. And suddenly my friend is suspect number one.
Flora Reed here, still running Catmint Cottage Nursery, still trying to convince Marmalade he's not actually in charge, and still somehow involved in village murders I absolutely did not ask to investigate. Autumn has arrived with mist, mud, and an invitation to supply exotic plants for a fundraiser at Brockleigh Manor's newly restored orangery.
It should have been straightforward: deliver citrus trees and decorative pots, smile for photographs, possibly network with wealthy potential clients. Instead, during the glittering party, a prominent local developer -- who happens to sit on GreenHart Development's board -- collapses after swatting at a wasp near his champagne flute. He dies within minutes, supposedly from an allergic reaction.
Except his EpiPen has vanished. The catering rota's been tampered with. And those wasps were suspiciously concentrated in one specific area of the orangery.
When my friend Tom becomes the prime suspect due to a very public row about unpaid invoices, I'm pulled into investigating a man whose business dealings touched every dodgy land sale in the county. As I dig into planning permissions and "heritage" developments, I uncover something that hits far too close to home: hidden in Brockleigh's archives are letters between my late father and the previous owner of Catmint Cottage, hinting at a construction accident cover-up that happened just before Dad disappeared.
With Rowan's reputation also under fire, Nell's memories filling in dangerous gaps, and Percy's "wasp deterrent" gadget behaving predictably unpredictably, I'm navigating the line between solving a murder and uncovering family secrets I'm not sure I want to know. The killer engineered a death using the victim's known allergy, wasps, and careful timing. They're clever, patient, and desperate to protect secrets that go back decades.
Marmalade, naturally, has located the key evidence in the one place no human thought to look. Now I just have to survive long enough to use it.
Perfect for readers who love:
• Autumn cosy mysteries
• Victorian orangery and glasshouse settings
• British village mysteries with depth
• Cat detectives with personality
• Amateur sleuths uncovering family secrets
• Clean mystery with emotional stakes
• Series with developing story arcs
Some secrets are buried in gardens. Some are trapped in glass. All of them have thorns.
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