The History of the Mystery

Garden mysteries, like culinary mysteries, have double meaning: gardens containing flowers and plants that are beautiful and give pleasure, yet may be full of thorns and contain ingredients that can kill. Susan Albert Wittig writes in her short story, A Deadly Chocolate Valentine that "Like anything else under the sun, innocent plants can be put to harmful uses." Growing plants and flowers provide a variety of backgrounds for mystery novels. In cities gardens make homes beautiful and florists provide greenery and flowers for many occasions. In rural areas acres of land may be devoted to crops and fruit bearing trees. Scientists, landscape architects, farmers, florists, home-owners are some of the people committed to plants and gardens.

Rare plants can be worth fortunes to companies that have world-wide markets. The seeds of such plants can be as alluring to criminals and collectors as paintings can be in the art world.

Hazards make gardening a challenge and provide good backgrounds for mysteries. Owners of land may become desperate when growth is hindered by nature such as insects or drought, or by human intervention such as spraying insecticides on fruit trees. Allergies to certain plants and plant products can be fatal when administered secretly. A great number of workers are needed to grow the plants for the world's population.

Gardens may be outside or within the home. Rex Stout's detective Nero Wolfe raised prize winning orchids in his New York dwelling. A prize winning or very rare plant may be the source of a deadly struggle. Yet delight in their beauty is the emotion most feel when they come across a great garden. In England and in Europe gardens may be very old, with statuary and water falls.

The background for gardening mysteries is important as location determines the nature of the gardening taking place. The following mysteries have very different backgrounds. Two British women gardeners are the investigative team in the Rosemary and Thyme series on videos/DVDs. Rosemary Boxer,plant pathologist, and Laura Thyme, farmer's daughter and dedicated gardener, are in business, working on lovely gardens in England and abroad. The problems are not only in the mysteries of why some plants are dying, but also in how to solve the murders that occur where they are working.

Albert,Susan Wittig An Unthymely Death and Other Garden Mysteries 2003. This book (also listed in culinary mysteries) contains "a treasury of stories, herbal lore, recipes and crafts from the world of Pecan Springs. Texas." Among the many examples of garden lore in the stories is a description of a "knot garden" that "originated in the Tudor period in England" found in The Pennyroyal Plot and information about many plants that grow in the wild is in An Unthymely Death. The Garden Plot 1997 This novel is set on a European garden tour, which provides descriptions of wonderful gardens of Europe, such as Cambridge University's Botanical Garden and Monet's garden in Giverney. But problems arise for the garden tourists. Maine residents Julia, a non-gardener and her aunt are on the tour as substitutes. They find that they are involved in solving murder across an ocean. Eglin, Anthony The Water Lily Cross An English Garden Mystery 2007. Lawrence Kingston, retired professor, receives a cryptic message. Kingston enjoys solving the London Times crosswords and his field of interest at the University of Edinburgh was plant biology. When a former colleague goes missing, Kingston has to solve messages as well as find a murderer. When a plant discovery is made, the news spreads quickly among gardeners around the world. A fortune can be made by the person who could provide seeds to them. This book has a great deal of information about plants and descriptions of gardens.

Harris, Rosemary Pushing Up Daisies A Dirty Business Mystery 2008. Paula Holliday, former media executive in New York, goes into the garden business. In a Springfield,Conneticut garden she uncovers the body of an infant. The garden hs been neglected for years Trying to find out who this is and how the infant came to be there involves Paula in community history, foods, and interaction with the Hispanic residents of the area. The book contains a great deal of information about gardens, plants and herbs.

Harrison, Janis Roots of Murder 1999. Bretta Solomon, a florist, has a shop in River City, Missouri, a town that sprawls across the craggy limestone bluffs on the south bluff of the Osage River. Still in mourning for her husband, she becomes involved in investigating the mysterious death of Isaac Miller, who grew flowers. This novel presents croplands, flower-growing land and a picture of the mix of people in the area. The beliefs of the Amish people are important in solving the mystery.

Green Thumb 2004 The University of Notre Dame is the background for a series of mysteries featuring professor Roger Knight, PhD in philosophy, and his brother Roger, a private detective. Together they work on solving crimes. In Green Thumb Ralph must find out about a plant as a poison. Ralph seeks information from biology professor Climacus in the greenhouse where plants are nurtured and studied. The professor delights in the nature of plants and says "Talking to them (the plants) does help, you know." Roger asks "Do they ever answer?" Prof. Climacus responds "This is their answer -just being the best they can be." For Ralph the issue is the how effective the possible poisonous effects of a plant like nightshade could be. The fact that poisonous effects are a plant's way of protecting itself does not diminish the fatal effects it can have. Nightshade, he learns, can kill.

Mills, Mark The Savage Garden 2007 This mystery contains the map of an Italian garden and villa where Adam Strickland is living while he studies the landscape architecture, plants and statuary. His professor at Cambridge University in England has sent him there upon the request of owner Signora Docci for a study of her gardens. Adam must come to learn about the history of the family in this large villa set in the hills of Tuscany, just south of Florence. The garden is said to have been made in memory of a wife who died. To understand the layout and iconography of this garden means Adam has to solve a mystery involving the members of the Signora's family.

Ripley, Ann Death at the Spring Plant Sale A Gardening Mystery 2003 Louise Eldridge is hostess of a PBS Satuday morning show, "Gardening with Nature." Her friend wants to get coverage of an event of the Georgetown Garden Club, which is in Old Bethesda, a Washington D.D. prestigious suburb. Louise, whose home is some 30 miles distant, in a far less prestigious area, finally agrees, and then finds herself involved in a murder where the police are far less amenable to her "meddling" than the police in her own home area where she has done some investigating in the past. Wealth and power, and the desire to keep these, are motives in this mystery. Death in the Orchid Garden 2006 is set in Hawaii where experts in gardening - from science, a botanical garden, public radio, technology background - have assembled for a conference in a plush resort. Questions arise, who finds new species, who gets published, what are these Hawaiian flowers- all of interest to Louise Eldridge, talk show hostess. Soon she is again involved in a murder.

Wan, Michelle The Orchid Shroud 2006 A novel of Death in the Dordonne, a region in southwest France. This is a complicated story: the detectives must look into the family history, trying to unravel long ago relationships in the past that influence the present. Wild orchids and werewolves - are these past and present? Interior decorator Mara Dunn and orchidologist Johan Wood investigate the strange aspects surrounding two crimes, one that was committed years ago, in the 1870s, and the second that occurs in the present.