A Corpse for Yew: a Peggy Lee Garden Mystery

by: Joyce and Jim Lavene

Published by: Berkley Prime Crime / Penguin

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Middle-aged widow Peggy Lee owns The Potting Shed, an urban garden store in Charlotte, North Carolina, buying it after retiring from her job teaching botany at the university. She occasionally is a consultant for the police if they have some botanical evidence. Her son Paul is a policeman, and her late husband was a detective. Her parents have recently moved to Charlotte and she is trying to get them settled with new friends and keep them out of her hair.

One day she accompanies her mother on a special expedition gathering bones for re-burial, and other historical artifacts, with volunteers from the local history museum. They are visiting the dried-up bed of Lake Whitley. The lake was created by damming a creek in the early 1900s, and it buried a village and graveyard. While there they stumble across a more recent corpse in the mud, the body of one of their friends, Lois Mullis, who had told them she was not coming on this trip. Lois is a prominent citizen, and the aunt of the chief of police.

Peggy is dragged into helping to solve the crime as her mother, Lilla’s new friends have some serious questions that the police do not seem to be addressing: How did Lois get out to the lake? Did she run into the grave robber she had caught there earlier and sent to jail? He had a real reason to hate her. Why did she eat poisonous yew berries? Did someone force her? The seeds she chewed were enough to kill her.

Peggy is also dealing with a new boyfriend who wants to get serious, while trying to hide the depth of their relationship from her son and parents. Her business is doing poorly due to the prolonged drought, and her partner and employees are trying to come up with some strategies to help the business survive.

You will enjoy the characters, history, and setting of this charming southern cozy.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JoyceandJimLavene.com