Something in the Water

New York: Mysterious Press. Fine. 1995. First Paperback Edition. Mass Market Paperback. No spine crease. Full number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. . 0.68 x 6.77 x 4.2 Inches. 226 pages. A Peter Shandy Mystery, No. 9. Massachusetts horticulturalist Peter Shandy is famous for his rutabagas, but he comes to Maine with a loftier plant in mind. Specifically, he wants to size up the world-renowned lupines of Frances Rondel, a nonagenarian whose legendary flowers are even more beautiful in life than they are in myth. Shandy is bitterly jealous, but finds a major distraction in the dining room of the country inn where he’s staying. He may grow wretched lupines, but no gardener can solve a murder like Peter Shandy. The corpse belongs to the late Jasper Flodge, a local loudmouth with a toupee and a sizeable gut. Shoveling down the last bites of a chicken potpie, Flodge clutches his chest and falls dead. Suddenly with more to do than stopping to smell the lupines, Shandy must ask himself: Which Maine cook has the bad taste to flavor chicken with cyanide? .