Death of a Garden Pest — Ann Ripley

Unearthing murderers is quickly becoming the specialty of amateur gardener and housewife Louise Eldridge.  Her horticultural skills have garnered her a
role on the public television show Gardening with Nature.  She has cultivated a controversial organic gardening approach that delights environmentalist viewers and alarms chemical-using traditionalists, drawing swarms of protesters, mounds of nasty mail, and absolutely fabulous ratings.

But the bloom of success fades suddenly when the society maven Louise replaced violently turns on her, picking a fight in the studio, only to wind up dead--poisoned by pesticides--moments later.  Louise is suspect number one, and in trying to clear herself, she must grub up clues and root out the real
killer--but with the police and the murderer hot on her trail, she is more likely to be planted six feet under than to stop this deadly canker.