The Orchid That Held a Grudge: A Botanical Cozy Mystery

About the book

A ruined date. A priceless orchid. A poisoner who knows exactly how to plant a clue. Plant shop owner and botanical consultant Tansy Pendrell is finally enjoying a hard-won Saturday date with Detective Clement Porter. But the candlelight and crostini are cut short when a call comes in: Arthur Vance, a legendary orchid hybridizer, has been found dead in his rare-specimen wing during the Winter Orchid Gala. When Tansy talks her way onto the crime scene as botanical consultant, she immediately spots a shivering ghost orchid exposed to a freezing draft—a deliberate setup that she confidently declares points straight to the estate's manager. But when the toxicology report reveals a highly complex, plant-derived toxin in the victim's tea, Tansy realizes the killer isn't a panicked amateur. It's a brilliant botanist who knows exactly how to manipulate plant life—and Tansy's own reputation. Armed with a paper trail thirty-seven years long, patent filings hiding a theft, and the help of her best friend Fern, Tansy must dig through a decades-old grudge to uncover the truth. With her budding relationship with Clem on the line and a killer who speaks her exact language, Tansy will have to learn that to catch a murderer, you have to look beyond the blooms and check the roots. The Orchid That Held a Grudge is the second book in The Tansy Pendrell Mysteries—a botanical cozy series for readers who love clever amateur sleuths, charming small towns, clean whodunits, and heroines with a green thumb. It can be enjoyed on its own, but readers who start with The Plant That Knew Too Much will never look at potting soil the same way again.