Common or Garden Crime: An Irish Gardening Mystery

From Booklist Amateur sleuths are led down the primrose path in this American debut of Pim's first detective novel, published in England in 1945. Set in the outskirts of Dublin during World War II, this horticultural whodunit cultivates a bumper crop of quirky characters, nearly all of whom become suspects when Lady Madeleine suddenly dies. It's a case of murder by monkshood when the lethal Aconitum ferox inexplicably seasons her Sunday meal. In the best tradition of Agatha Christie, this tale will prompt readers to dig deep for clues as conjectures bounce from the dashing Lord Barma to the daffy Miss FitzEustace; not even the victim herself is beyond suspicion. Although Irish Guard detectives are called in to get to the root of the matter, it's the village's own charming yet sensible Lucy Bex who, in the course of attending to the daily rituals of Irish country life, unearths the murderer's true identity. Pim's mystery becomes as much a novel of manners as murder, yielding a rich harvest of uncommon intrigue. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved From Publishers Weekly Sheila Pim's crisp first book, Common or Garden Crime, originally published in 1945 and reprinted now in The Rue Morgue's vintage series, tells of murder by herbs in a Dublin protosuburb. When a neighbor is murdered with monkshood from Lucy Bex's garden, the upright, indomitable Bex undertakes to save the wrongfully accused. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Set in a small Irish village during World War II, this 1945 novel features protagonist Lucy Bex, who discovers that although her town is far from the fighting, it might be just as dangerous when a neighbor ends up poisoned by plants growing in Lucy's own garden. This is the first in a series of Pim's mysteries that Rue Morgue will reprint. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.