Fruit of the Poisoned Tree — Joyce Lavene; Jim Lavene

Meet Peggy Lee: botanist, detective's widow, and owner of the Potting Shed, an urban gardener's paradise in downtown Charlotte. Mild winters keep the store thriving all year round, but there are plenty of people with colder intentions...

What made Peggy's lifelong friend Park Lamonte drive off a ramp to his death? Park's aged mother suspects his wife, Beth, killed him for the ten-million-dollar insurance policy. The police think so, too. But Peggy has a growing suspicion that there's more to the story.

She's convinced Beth is innocent--even after Park's mother is also killed, and evidence emerges that seems to point to Beth. Can Peggy maintain her gardening business, teach her botany classes, nurture her relationship with her new man, deal with her unruly Great Dane...and still find time to extract the truth?