The Mantrap Garden - Celia Grant, Bk 3 Author:John Sherwood Celia Grant, horticulturist and amateur sleuth, hesitates when she's asked to become trustee for Monk's Mead, a famous English garden. Does she really have time for another commitment, she asks herself. — But then she visits Monk's Mead and is immediately intrigued by what she sees. Why does the glorious garden suffer from... more » such serious neglect? Celia finds untended flower beds, a brutally hacked tree, and deformed and yellowed foliage. What should be a magnificent, world-class garden is, instead, a disaster.
It's not only the flowers that are dying. Old Mrs. Mortlake, Monk's Mead's owner, recently passed away at the age of ninety. Could her death have been other than natural? The coroner gave an "open" verdict, leaving doubt as to how the old lady got the overdose that killed her. Neighborhood gossips have little double, however. They say that Lady Mary Lindsay killed her mother.
Celia doesn't know what to believe, but she sees that Mary Lindsay looks haggard and distraught. Whatever happened has reduced her to a state of raw nerves. Is her guilty conscience overwhelming her, or is she just reacting sensitively to the nasty rumors? When vandals desecrate a nude statue of Mary's brother, dressing it in female clothing and tying a noose around its neck, Mary reacts hysterically, thinking the female clothes are meant to suggest she is a murderess.
Celia's not one to resist the alluring combination of mystery and gardens, so it's no surprise when she finds herself deeply involved in the fate of Monk's Mead and its owners. But only when she links past to present, the living to the dead, does she find the startling answers to a challenging and clever puzzle.« less