In the new botanically-themed mystery DEATH IN A DESERT GARDEN, Bea Rivers’ euphoria over her new job at Shandley Gardens is shattered by the death of the Gardens’ founder, Liz Shandley. When the police determine that she was murdered, Bea is drawn into the investigation, while trying desperately to maintain the life of a committed single parent dating a struggling writer. Every one of the members of the small staff and board are murder suspects. Through the sizzling and beautiful days of a Sonoran Desert summer, someone keeps dropping odd botanical clues. As Bea’s family’s safety is threatened, she discovers just how tangled the relationships at the Gardens really are.

 

The book can be pre-ordered at bookshop.org and Amazon, and will be available October 5.

Marty Eberhardt is a former botanical garden Executive Director of both Tucson Botanical Gardens and The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon, CA. She now delights in using the right side of her brain to write fiction and poetry. DEATH IN A DESERT GARDEN is her first novel.  Marty has published several poems and prose pieces, in The Wilderness House Literary Review, The Dragon Poet Review, The San Diego Writers INK 2017 Anthology, The Twisted Vine Literary Review, four volumes of The Guilded Pen, and The Silver City Quarterly Review. She divides her time between the small mountain town of Silver City, NM, and San Diego, and enjoys the flora and fauna of both. She lives with her husband and a dog, and sees her children and grandchildren as much as possible.