Ripley, Ann Books

Summer Garden Murder (A Gardening Mystery)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

complex and refreshing amateur sleuth 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

TV show host and gardener Louse Eldridge is shocked when she sees Peter Hoffman, a murderer who she apprehended five years ago. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent four years in a mental hospital in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southern Virginia. He has the audacity to show his face at his old stomping grounds and makes it seem like he and Louise are going to have a meeting to iron out their differences.

Before that can happen, his wife Phyllis overhears a conversation where he sells his arms factory before he leaves the country. His wife is left with the house and a stipend. Soon after that meeting Peter disappears and an anonymous tip leads the police to Louise's garden where they find his body. When another corpse is found on her property, it looks like Louise might go to jail unless she finds the killer.

Readers who love good, complex and refreshing amateur sleuth tales without any blood or gore will want to read SUMMER GARDEN MURDER. The protagonists is a plucky and independent sort not content to let others find the murderer but is determined to ferret out the person herself because it is her life that is on the line. Ann Ripley has written another exciting garden mystery that is so absorbing readers will read it in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

Editorial Review:

As star of public TV's top gardening show, Louise Eldridge is something of a celebrity. But now she's in for notoriety of a different kind. . . . Summer is the season for disquiet in Louise's Sylvan Valley cul-de-sac, and the tradition continues when an uninvited guest crashes a neighborhood soiree. Five years ago, Louise identified Peter Hoffman as the "mulch murderer." Now he's been released from a Virginia state mental institution.

The Garden Tour Affair: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ann Ripley's dirt-digging amateur sleuth, Louise Eldridge, plans a weekend trip to Connecticut with her husband Bill, their peevish teenage daughter Janie, Janie's boyfriend Chris, and his mother Nora. Louise is hoping to escape the heat and the constant stream of dead bodies that keep turning up near her suburban Washington, D.C., home. (See Ripley's previous three books in this garden-happy series: Mulch, Death of a Garden Pest, and Death of a Political Plant.)

Not surprisingly, the garden tour--which Louise is televising for her PBS show, "Gardening with Nature"--turns out to be a busman's holiday. First the elderly hostess at the upscale Litchfield Falls Inn meets with a suspicious though miraculously not serious accident right after the bevy of bluestocking guests have introduced themselves. Next, an undercurrent of barely hidden lusts and professional resentments breaks loose when a tempestuously charming botany professor has a fatal fall while climbing a local mountain. Suspicion falls immediately on the Gasparras, a plant-breeding couple who have accused the professor of stealing their research into the creation of a red iris, and on Mark and Sandy Post, former students of the professor who are clearly hiding a puzzling ménage à trois. But Louise barely has time to scan the guests for guilty expressions before another body is found. Naturally, there are a number of dead-end garden paths that Louise and her cohorts must wander down before the identity of the killer--or killers--is revealed.

Ripley's series appears to be picking up steam. Her characters haven't quite come to full life, but the plot of The Garden Tour Affair is tight and interesting. If the cogent gardening essays scattered throughout the book are meant to be indicative of the tone of Louise's TV show, she must be a dynamo onscreen. The essays are punchy and fun, covering topics from potagers to genetic engineering, and illuminating seemingly minor plot points nicely. --Barrie Trinkle

Harvest Of Murder (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Wow! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I really loved it but I miss the gardening essays found in her other books.

good 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Due to the success of her PBS gardening show and the demands of her husband and two daughters, Louise Eldridge finds little time for herself. That is why she looks forward to walking her dog with former Jefferson University ethnobotanist Dr. Peter Whiting when he walks his dog. Peter regales Louise with fascinating stories about life in the Amazon. He claims a rain forest tribe has invented a fountain of youth through a plant they convert into tea.

However, her walks end when someone murders Peter in Ravine Park. Mt. Vernon District detective Mike Geraghy learns that Louise walked her dog with Peter every night near the crime site. He interviews her while warning her not to get involved as she has previously done in homicide investigations. However, Peter's wife asks Louise to help complete her husband's research. Though she agrees because her show is on hiatus, Louise would have said no if she understood the danger she is in from several assailants.

Though billed as a gardening mystery, HARVEST OF MURDER reads more like an amateur sleuth medical cozy though it never goes deeply into the science. The story line is shrewdly arranged so that the audience can comprehend the motivations of the key players, especially on the part of the scientists to include the victim. The heroine is a nurturing person whose family make her feel more like a neighbor to the reader who care what happens to Louise. Ann Ripley provides amateur sleuth fans and those who derive joy from a not so scientific medical thriller an affable reading experience.

Death in the Orchid Garden (A Gardening Mystery)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Louise Eldridge is taking her public television garden show on the road--to Hawaii! But the tropical paradise isn't so idyllic once murder makes an unexpected appearance...

Lush with hibiscus, ficus, plumeria, and monkeypod trees, the island of Kauai is the perfect place for Louise to film a few episodes of Gardening with Nature.

After their shoot at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Louise unwinds with a sunset walk on the beach. But at the base of a cliff, she makes a grisly discovery: the battered body of Matthew Flynn, a noted botanist. Her attempts to save his life are fruitless, and--after seeing his injuries firsthand--Louise is convinced that his death was no accident.

Now it'll take some serious digging for Louise to unearth more clues, but she'll have to be very careful, because this is one killer who is ready to plant her in the ground...

"Neatly plotted...Ripley's green thumb fans will relish the paradise island setting and Louise's reliable sleuthing." --Publishers Weekly

The Christmas Garden Affair: A Gardening Mystery

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Charming Who-Done-It 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Louise Eldridge is aggravated when sexy home & garden queen, Bunny Bainfield, sweeps up all of the great ratings for her show "Bunny in the Garden," thanks to her style of wearing low-cut tops, and short shorts, while filming her show; while Louise works hard to keep her home and garden show on the air. Louise can't stand to see someone like Bunny raking in the money for exploitation of a great hobby, but when Louise realizes that she and Bunny have both received invitations to the First Lady's Christmas Conference on native plants, she realizes that someone must hate Bunny even more than she does, for Bunny is poisoned, and ends up dead. Louise soon begins uncovering secrets about the many suspects, and Bunny herself, and knows that it's up to her to solve the mystery, before the killer strikes again.

This is my first Ann Ripley mystery, and I must admit, I am not disappointed. Louise is a fun character, who keeps you interested in reading on, to see what will happen next. Adding the enjoyable world of home and gardening to the mystery is just an added plus. A charming who-done-it in which all mystery lovers will enjoy.

Erika Sorocco

Death At The Spring Plant Sale

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pleasant diversion 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

When her husband and daughter go out of town, PBS journalist Louise Eldridge decides to do a television show on her friend's gardening club sale and then spend a few days visiting. When the gardening club president is killed--in the car with her husband, the country's top economist, Eldridge decides to go into full-time detective mode. If the killer was a hit-man who botched an assassination of the economist, Eldridge knows she can't do much, but if, as she suspects, the gardening club was involved, then she better than the police, has a chance to solve the murder.

Eldridge is assisted in her investigations by her friend, housewife Emily Holiday. Holiday's overcontrolling husband tries to oppose their investigation, but he spends his time at work and Holiday and Eldridge have all day to chase after gardeners, discover the economist's affairs, and learn the dirt on who would benefit from the club president's death. Sure enough, there are a number of candidates and in the Republican suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, all of them are armed and trained.

Author Ann Ripley writes an approachable mystery that incorporates a female-supportive message as well. The women in the story, whether housewives or professional women, may be underestimated by the men in their lives, but it is they who keep things going. Protagonist Eldridge is generally likable although she seems to have a bit of an inflated view of her own importance and is hurt when the police don't drop everything to consider her theories of the case.

DEATH AT THE SPRING PLANT SALE is a pleasant diversion. It is a perfect book to take along on that next airline flight.

Editorial Review:

Louise comes to the Bethesda Garden Club's famous spring plant sale hoping to get great footage for her public television show, Gardening with Nature. But companionable chats take a back seat to sleuthing when club president Catherine Freeman is shot point-blank in her own driveway. The police are convinced her husband, the controversial head of the Federal Reserve, was the true target. Louise, however, is not so sure.

Mulch (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Real Character -- Like You and Me! 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I am always impressed when authors make their characters become real. And, that is just what Ann Ripley has done! Louise Eldridge seems to have a real husband who nearly falls into the lust garden for the neighbor and real kids who fall in love with the neighbor boy or have "pricey" college expenses.

Here's the garden scoop, Louise becomes a local celebrity when she lands her own public television gardening show in the Washington, D.C. area. However, this is her first real job. So, she's a little naive when it comes to professional competition. When a murder occurs in this setting and context, she becomes a big time suspect. Her technical skill about plants along with her humor and character parlay against her fears.

Though I am always anxious to find new mystery series authors, I find Ann Ripley's character, Louise Eldridge, great fun and educational. Read this book if you love plants . . .or if you love new types of mysteries! I bet you will be just like me and want to read "Mulch" (which I wish I had read first) and "Death of a Political Plant."

Editorial Review:

Amateur gardener and housewife Louise Eldridge has big plans for her family's new Sylvan Valley home, situated among the flower of suburban Washington, D.C., society. But she's barely turned the topsoil when her organic mulching unearths the unidentifiable remains of a murder victim. Ads in "Mostly Murder".

Death of a Political Plant: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ann Ripley's horticultural heroine, Louise Eldridge, enchanted mystery lovers of all varieties in Death of a Garden Pest and Mulch
. Now she returns in a witty new tale of muckraking, murder, and deeply buried--and very dangerous--secrets.

Louise's TV show, Gardening with Nature, has made her a celebrity, sweeping her from lawn-mower commercials all the way to the president's National Environmental Commission. Not that Louise is about to get her hands dirty in the mudslinging campaigns of an election year. As usual, her main concerns are right in her own backyard.

Here, in Washington's suburban Sylvan Valley, she is subject to an unwelcome infestation of houseguests that threatens to crowd out her houseplants. Least welcome of all are three bossy busybodies in town for the Perennial Plant Society convention, who fete Louise as official "Plant Person of the Year" but press her to slash back the sweetgums and swamp oaks that give her beloved garden its pristine air.

Her grin-and-bear-it mood is lightened, however, by the arrival of an old flame. Twenty years ago, in the first bloom of youth, Louise fell heavily for Jay McCormick's crooked smile and crusading charm. Now, he's an investigative journalist looking worriedly over his shoulder. Jay confides that he's come on two distinct undercover missions. One is to ensure that his ex-wife, a high-powered political lawyer, doesn't cheat on the rules for custody of their young daughter. Around the other, he raises an impenetrable thicket of secrecy.

But Jay's cover is blown when he surfaces, a nibbled corpse, in a neighbor's ornamental fishpond. Who put him there? And what was the mysterious story he was investigating? Only Louise can unearth the trail that leads from a missing computer to a pistol-packing intruder trampling her purple-spotted toad lilies to evidence hidden where only a hardcore gardener could find it. Soon she's digging up enough dirt--social, marital, and political--to uproot some of Washington's top players...if she doesn't get herself nipped in the bud first.

Ripening suspense, a thorny plot, and plenty of gardening tips make Death of a Political Plant a perfect bouquet of murder, mystery, and mayhem.

Death of a Garden Pest: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A fun read, especially for gardeners 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

If you are in the mood for a light hearted mystery that is fun and full of gardening tips, then this is for you. Ripley goes along at a leisurly rate (the murder does not occur until around page 100) but her characters are interesting and fun. Every third chapter or so, there is a small gardening essay covering various topics such as composting, organic pest controls, roses, etc. If you are not into gardening, you can skip these because they are essentially unrelated to the plot.

Editorial Review:

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.

The Perennial Killer: A Gardening Mystery (Gardening Mysteries)

Ann Ripley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Good mystery except for gardening essays 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Muggy and moist Washington DC is home to Louise Eldridge, hostess of the PBS show "Gardening with Nature." Her director sends Louise to the Boulder area as part of a series of location shows on "The Open Spaces." Louise finds the dry mountain climate of Colorado as quite a shock and she has a hard time adjusting. Though a TV personality, Louise has gained quite a national reputation for her work on homicide investigations. However, she hopes that her western stay remains trouble free.

Unfortunately on her first day in Boulder, Louise finds a dead body. Local rancher Jimmy Porter, whose spread was going to be used by Louise, has a bullet in his chest. The chauvinistic sheriff declares a poacher killed Jimmy. Almost everyone else thinks otherwise. Reluctantly, Louise is dragged into the investigation. She soon learns that almost everyone close to Jimmy had a motive to kill him and that the real culprit may soon have a reason to murder Louise.

Anyone who enjoys gardening will be happy for the insight provided throughout the novel. Those who have little interest in gardening can easily skip through those passages without losing the theme of the main story line. Although the plot requires a big leap of faith at certain points, amateur sleuth fans will enjoy THE PERENNIAL KILLER because of the likable heroine. Readers will sympathize with her problems even as they applaud her inner strength, which carries the tale. Ann Ripley elasticized the credibility of her subplots beyond the reach of Mr. Fantastic, but those readers who enjoy an entertaining gardening cozy will still feel a Rocky Mountain High after reading this novel.

Harriet Klausner

Editorial Review:

On location in Colorado for her syndicated television show, Gardening with Nature, filming alpine butterflies and avalanche lilies, Louise Eldridge can see why this beautiful terrain is as precious as gold. Then the pure Rocky Mountain air is fouled by the discovery of elderly rancher Jimmy Porter's body, shot to death and draped like a coyote carcass over his own backyard fence. Louise soon discovers a staggering list of suspects, since Jimmy's plan to sell his 13,000-acre ranch to a government preservation program left a lot of family, friends, and competitors with much to lose. Throw in a second death, a closed nuclear plant, a CIA investigation involving Louise's husband, and a bullet hole in her cowboy hat, and Louise suddenly realizes she's onto a killer as hardy as the native skeleton weed-and seemingly as indestructible.