Flower Mystery

Diana and Fergus are both in the running for the coveted spot of "prime suspect". Fergus decides the only way to clear their names and save Christmas is for them to investigate the case. He's convinced that an ancient curse is the real killer. Diana is convinced that Fergus has lost his marbles. She's ready to prove him wrong, but when they are dragged into a maze of secrets and lies, she starts to wonder....

Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt - and, as it turned out, homicidal - local school board, and now the town's back in view with more alarming news: A woman's been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There's a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of 20 years ago that has a midwinter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter, Virgil begins to dig into 20 years' worth of traumas, feuds, and bad blood.

Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what's-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns. The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers' cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down.

Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of 700 souls. Nothing ever happened there - until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: "I'll Do What I Can") and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They'd heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They'd all get rich! What could go wrong? When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that's only the beginning of their troubles - and Virgil Flowers'....

In different corners of the world four high-profile figures are assassinated in less than a week. Nobody links the deaths but one thing is certain: each of them has been stalked, sought out, and killed with care and preparation. Then a sinister connection is established: a single, blood-tipped rose is sent to each funeral and an unremarkable female agent is murdered in Switzerland.

Nero Wolfe has left his comfortable brownstone for the promise of a remarkably rare black orchid at a flower show - but before Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, have a chance to stop and smell the roses, a diabolically daring murder takes place right under their noses and puts a blight on the proceedings. Now Wolfe's fancy turns to thoughts of weeding out a murderer - one who's definitely not a garden-variety killer.

When a fancy sports car whizzes down the high street of Willow Waters in the Cotswolds, florist and witch Peony Bellefleur senses it could bring trouble. She is right. Bad boy Dennis Ratslaff left Willow Waters many years ago, and the community breathed a sigh of relief. After a couple of decades in Australia, he’s returned with an Aussie accent, a lot of money, and a plan to stay. He’s bought a beautiful historic property with an award-winning English country garden that he plans to dig up for his swimming pool.

One late fall Sunday in southern Minnesota, a farmer brings a load of soybeans to a local grain elevator - and a young man hits him on the head with a steel bar, drops him into the grain bin, waits until he's sure he's dead, and then calls the sheriff to report the "accident." Suspicious, the sheriff calls in Virgil Flowers, who quickly breaks the kid down...and the next day the boy's found hanging in his cell. Remorse? Virgil isn't so sure....

One February afternoon, Detective Ray Flowers' life is blown apart by a petrol bomb attack. No one can tell him who did it. Or why. Anchorless and alone, he moves to his aunt's country cottage. What he needs is perspective. Instead, he is tormented by visions of Kitty Hallam, a troubled young woman accused of witchcraft. Back in 1643. Is she a figment of Flowers' imagination or something more? Whatever the truth, Flowers can't help but be drawn into Kitty's world, sensing their stories are intertwined somehow.

In his 16th Matthew Scudder novel, All the Flowers Are Dying, New York Times best-selling author Lawrence Block takes the series to a new level of suspense and a new depth of characterization. Block puts Scudder, and the listener, at the very edge of the abyss.

World-famous fiddle player Barley McFee arrives in blustery Bellewick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, for a grand homecoming concert organized by jeweler Bernice Brennan. Fiona Knox, owner of the Climbing Rose Flower Shop, is starting to regret volunteering to help with the concert. Bernice is an exacting taskmaster, and Fiona has enough tension dealing with her parents, who have traveled from Tennessee to visit Fi and her younger sister, Isla, and to reveal a secret about Fi's birth.

Rei Shimura, a California girl living in Tokyo, has an antiques business that's only slightly more successful than her love life. When her aunt enrolls her in the Kayama School of Ikebana to learn how to arrange flowers, disaster strikes. A mean teacher is found with scissors in her neck, and Takeo Kayama, the sexy billionaire heir to the school, considers Rei's aunt the main suspect.

In a quiet village surrounded by ancient woods and the imposing Italian Alps, a man is found naked with his eyes gouged out. It is the first in a string of gruesome murders. Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a detective with a background in criminal profiling, is called to investigate. Battaglia is in her mid-60s, her rank and expertise hard-won from decades of battling for respect in the male-dominated Italian police force. Soon she finds that buried deep in these mountains are whispers of a dark and dangerous history, possibly tied to a group of eight-year-old children.

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

Amanda Flower presents Book 2.5 in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery series.

Diary of a Murderer captivates and provokes in equal measure, exploring what it means to be on the edge - between life and death, good and evil. In the titular novella, a former serial killer suffering from memory loss sets his sights on one final target: his daughter's boyfriend, who he suspects is also a serial killer. In other stories we witness an affair between two childhood friends that questions the limits of loyalty and love; a family's disintegration after a baby son is kidnapped and recovered years later; and more.

Abby Knight is the proud owner of her hometown flower shop, but a new low-cost competitor is killing her profits - and a black SUV just rammed her vintage Corvette in a hit-and-run. She's determined to track down the driver, but when the trail turns deadly, the next flower arrangement might be for her own funeral....

Lillian's world is full of grand parties, sunshine, and promises, as thrilling as the fairy tales Mama spins for her and her little sister, Eugenia. No one, not even her cold, stern Papa and her Bible spouting sister Emily, can crush her spirits—until the day Emily reveals the shattering secret at Lillian's birth, a secret Mama sadly cannot deny. Still Lillian refuses to believe Emily's hateful claim that she is evil, a curse...even when sweet, gentle Eugenia loses her fragile hold on life, and Mama retreats further into her fantasies.

Florist Fiona Knox left behind her gloomy life for a magical garden in Scotland, but a murder on her shop’s opening day spells doom. Fiona Knox thought she was pulling her life back together when she inherited her godfather’s cottage in Duncreigan, Scotland - complete with a magical walled garden. But the erstwhile Tennessee flower shop owner promptly found herself deep in danger when she found a dead body among the glimmering blossoms.

When Meredith Mitchell bumps into her old school friend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show, she is shocked to discover that she was the first wife of her companion, Chief Inspector Alan Markby. But the meeting is not the only surprise; before the afternoon is out, Markby has a death on his hands.