Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers

by Marta McDowell

This fun, engrossing book takes a look at the surprising influence that gardens and gardening have had on mystery novels and their authors.

With their deadly plants, razor-sharp shears, shady corners, and ready-made burial sites, gardens make an ideal scene for the perfect murder. But the outsize influence that gardens and gardening have had on the mystery genre has been underappreciated. Now, Marta McDowell, a writer and gardener with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, illuminates the many ways in which our greatest mystery writers, from Edgar Allen Poe to authors on today’s bestseller lists, have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardens.

From the cozy to the hardboiled, the literary to the pulp, and the classic to the contemporary, Gardening Can Be Murder is the first book to explore the mystery genre’s many surprising horticultural connections. Meet plant-obsessed detectives and spooky groundskeeper suspects, witness toxic teas served in foul play, and tour the gardens—both real and imagined—that have been the settings for fiction’s ghastliest misdeeds. A New York Times bestselling author herself, McDowell also introduces us to some of today’s top writers who consider gardening integral to their craft, assuring that horticultural themes will remain a staple of the genre for countless twisting plots to come.

“This book is dangerous. A veritable cornucopia of crime fiction and gardening lore, it faces the reader with multiple temptations—books to seek out, plants to obtain, garden tours to book.” —Vicki Lane, author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries

Genres: Nonfiction, Mystery, Gardening, Nature, History, Books About Books, Science

Audible Audio

First published September 5, 2023

About the author

I live, garden and write in Chatham, New Jersey where I share my garden with my husband, Kirke, assorted wildlife and approximately 10,000 honey bees. You will often find me at the New York Botanical Garden, where I teach landscape history and gardening courses. My new book, All the Presidents' Gardens, is coming out from Timber Press in October 2016. (I'm excited!) When I'm not gardening I like to read and knit and cook and eat, though not all at the same time.

My husband, Kirke, summarizes my biography as “I am therefore I dig.”

Reviews

[Dez the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read…hard to almost categorize if I’m being honest.

This isn’t a typical read in any sense. This book highlights the connections of how some of the BEST writers utilized gardening and horticulture knowledge to spin the most sinister mystery novels we have now dubbed classics.

The visuals in this book gothically compliment the deadly plants beautifully. I would absolutely buy this for myself or as a gift, just because of the artwork.

If you like learning about deadly gardening plants and have a keen interest in mystery writing / writers and this history surrounding some of the greatest novels of all time, you will enjoy this book. I learned so much!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this out from my local library. I saw it sitting on the NEW shelf, and how could I resist? I love using poison in my own books, and am proud of growing a few poisons of my own, so this was a perfect fit!

The book is a breezy read, aided by frequent illustrations from the mentioned works. Really, the handsome hardcover would make for a fine coffee table book that could make guests arch an eyebrow, and, I could only hope, quickly flee the premises. The interior is broken into sections such as Gardening Detectives, Setting, Means, etc. There is, of course, overlap between those categories. McDowell is obviously well-read in the mystery genre. She cites not only the classics, such as Christie and Doyle, but contemporary cozies. It made me interested in reading about a dozen books; seemingly in anticipation of that urge, the back of the book lists all of the referenced works, practically making it a BUY list. I could see this volume as a handy reference tome for authors in need of creative ways of offing characters.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, and the drawings interspersed throughout the book are delightful. The book list in the back is an excellent idea and I have a lot of books to suggest for my book clubs. Thank you Netgally for providing this book to me. It's a fun, unexpected, and thoroughly enjoyable book for anyone who enjoys murder mysteries, gardening, or just wants a light-hearted fun read.

[Mackenzie Clevenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 - I want to be clear! I liked this book!

The main reason I’m not rating it any higher is just because I wanted it to go more in depth. The whole basis for this book, the correlation between gardening and the mystery genre, is super interesting for both casual gardeners and casual readers, but I felt like McDowell was trying to cram so many different sub-topics into the main topic that everything felt very surface level. It’s obvious that she has a vast knowledge of gardening and mystery novels, and it’s clear she did a lot of research for this book, but it feels like we skip over conversations really quickly. For some, I understand why it was so quick (how else can you explain that sometimes authors use gardening wire as a murder weapon other than giving the example and moving on), but for other subjects like authors’ own gardens that they kept or poisonous plants that often occur, I feel things could’ve gone a lot more in depth. I was super invested and really wanted to know more, but we’d move on before it felt like we were really in the meat of things. Perhaps this was done intentionally to make it more widely accessible and generalized, as making it too niche might have prevented some readership, but even though this is a nonfiction title, the pacing was just too quick for me to really feel like I’d learned a lot on each topic.

My favorite sections were by far the chapters detailing the history of horticulture being paired with the mystery novel, in which there was a (semi-)deep dive into various mysteries that introduced now common elements of plant-based murders, and the section that detailed mystery authors’ own gardening experiences. I feel as though the other sections would’ve had a bigger pay off if we had gone more in depth into how they affected the mystery genre overall, but they were also enjoyable and it was fun to see all the different named examples McDowell was able to provide for each smaller faction. The book list at the end was also a great touch.

Overall, I was just looking for a more in depth examination and historical analysis than this book provided, but it was an easy and quick read that was clearly well researched and written with a lot of passion. Definitely a good book to pick up whether you’re an amateur gardener or an amateur sleuth.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book in which the author Marta McDowell describes the importance of gardens, gardeners, and those that love gardens for being the setting or characters in crime fiction. Sometime the ties are tenuous 'the author loved to garden' and other times the connection is essential for the plot of a book. The examples range from the well-known such as the poisons used by murderers in Agatha Christie novels to those of contemporary authors. I'm looking forward to attending a presentation by the author this coming week at the Missouri Botanic Garden. Readers of this book may be interested in my contribution to botanical forensics in crime fiction: Juice of Cursed Hebenon available on kindle and my non-fiction true crime book Planting Clues: How plants solve crimes.

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, a big thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for the opportunity to read this book.


As a longtime lover of murder mysteries and the poison trope, how could I not immediately be drawn to a title like "Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers"?

This book is so much more than poison and is everything from a reference guide to an excellent way to learn more about some of our favorite writers and characters. Each chapter looks over different aspects of the world of mystery novels. From Nero Wolfe's obsession with orchids to a description of foxglove and its life as a plant that can save or kill, each page is a glimpse into the depth of plotting.

It is so fitting in the final pages to use Margaret Atwood's quote about gardening and gardeners not being rational. How perfect to combine the world of gardening and murder in this book.

While a short book, it can feel quite dense at times. After all, there is so much packed in a book with fewer pages than many of the novels it references. It can feel at times that you are reading a textbook which is the only real downfall. I love the references and reading lists in the back of the book. There are so many sources and a perfect way to bring every reader to their next mystery!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful dig! Murderous mulch, perilous petunias, and weed-filled whodunits! A blooming good read of horticultural homicides and deep-rooted debauchery!

All joking and horrible garden/murder puns and alliteration aside -- as a fan of both mysteries and gardening, Gardening Can Be Murder is the perfect combination of both worlds. It was like finding the perfect heirloom tomato variety -- unexpected, colorful, and oh so satisfying. McDowell gets to the root of various novels, showcasing how authors have skillfully introduced different plants, herbs, and other greenery into interesting and unique murder plots, all without spoilers. Her writing was refreshingly engaging and witty, and her editorial asides about the implausibility of some garden-related deaths (death by pruning shears, anyone?) had me chuckling out loud.

Each chapter introduces a new mystery novel or 5 to check out, and I've already started working my way though the reading list McDowell so generously provides. In fact, the ONLY reason I'm not giving the book a full five stars is that it's added considerably to my already daunting list of to-be-read books!

[Sofie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No real analysis and the graphics rarely supported the text

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6 A fun lil book

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardening detectives, murders set in gardens, famously real and fictionalized, just a horticultural cornucopia of related literature. It has sure elongated my TBR list to look for.

[Grace Gerardot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Marta McDowells writing, so when I discovered that she was releasing a beautifully covered book about the mystery genre (which I love), I was ecstatic. I immediately pre ordered and sat eagerly waiting for its arrival. The copy of book itself is 5 stars, it opens beautifully, every little detail in formatting and decoration was a mysterious autumnal vibe, but the content just wasn’t up to Marta McDowell par. What this book was marketed as and what I was led to expect from the outlook of McDowells other works was talking about the tradition of gardening and murder mysteries. Her first section was absolutely lovely, the way she wove the garden of Eden into her first paragraph, the detectives and books she chose fit extremely well. I now really want to start reading Nero Wolfe and Brother Cadfael. I loved her take on Roses in the Moonstone and Miss Marples positioning of her garden. From there it was down hill, for being her smallest book I thought it would be loaded with content but instead felt like she was really stretching for material, sometimes she even used books that didn’t fit into the mystery genre. The connections between gardening and mystery became a stretch, more having to-do with modern mystery readers need for mere aesthetics than for actual deep connection to gardening itself. There was also times like at the very end of the book where Marta McDowell would make a comment about something like the many authors who garden when really her examples had been scarce and included authors like Nathanial Hawthorne as mystery writers just to make the cut. I also did not appreciate the random mentioning of detectives as “racist” or “homophobic,” other than those being two buzz words that have lost their meaning in our day and age, they also felt out of place, as if when I read stories of murder I expect perfection and no disagreeable conclusions or comments? Murder mysteries are always challenging us and our sense of right and wrong. There were sections that could have been good, but it wasn’t enough to make a whole book out of. Without the connection to the true and beautiful McDowells writing that previously I had reveled in became superfluous and showy, the substance wasn’t there to support it.

Overall, if you want a book that reads like a compilation of rambling book reviews then you might actually like this, but if you wanted something cohesive and meaningful I would say spend your time on something else. Sorry Marta McDowell. If you want to read one of her brilliant works try Gardening Life of Beatrix Potter or The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

[LindaPf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m unreasonably excited about Marta McDowell’s “Gardening Can Be Murder” — How many should I buy for Christmas presents? How do I convince my botanical book clubs (The Secret Garden Book Club at Ashton Gardens and Read Between the Spines of The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix) to choose this as a selection? Will I be babbling to my fellow horticultural volunteers at the university about “oh, look! a “Helleborus niger” with white flowers” but we gardeners know that niger means black and that here “black” is about the poisonous tuber?

Obviously this is my perfect book, but Marta McDowell is also the queen of lacing literature with landscaping. I knew her work when my aforementioned book club chose her “Unearthing the Secret Garden” about Francis Hodgson Burnett’s plant inspirations. She has also written books about the gardens of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, Emily Dickinson, and the White House. Here she has gathered a wide compendium of authors, mystery books involving plants, wicked gardens, and botanical murder means (we gardeners can stab you with pruners, take off fingers with loppers, choke you with weed killer, or strangle you with floral wire, and then we have alibi shovels to bury you and let you become fertilizer).

The research that Ms.McDowell did is absolutely amazing and incredibly comprehensive. She could write separate books about Agatha Christie and Miss Marple (their trendy Japanese gardens of the early 1910s and the great exhibitions Ms. Christie might have attended) or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes’s experiments with plant poisons. I think she must have been collecting literary landscaping stories for years. There are so many gardening mysteries I’ve missed, but thanks to the author, I’ve added them to my to-be-read list.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars! This book is more than just for gardeners, too. I recalled that my love of mystery novels started as a teenager with Jane Marple and I was quietly absorbing facts like white-flowering silver fleece vine was a menace. Even non-gardeners have probably read enough about jimson weed/angel’s trumpet (an entire season of the cable series, “The Sinner” was based on a murderous child brewing tea from that plant) to know that it’s appearance in a story might be a clue.

Thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My librarian ordered this for me after I asked her to recommend a good mystery series - one that fits within my apparently narrow boundaries of tolerance: no horror/gore, no true crime, nothing that has abuse to animals or children, nothing too traumatizing; one that is smart and well-written, not too dumb or overly unrealistic.

Wow - did she figure me out after my two-minute rant! In terms of a reference book for people who enjoy a "traditional" murder mystery, Gardening Can Be Murder is spot on. In addition to illustrating the important role gardening has played in the mystery genre, it also provides a brief history of the genre itself, along with a wonderful chart of every author and title mentioned so the reader can research and note what they want to read for themselves.

Of course, my favorite mystery author, Susan Wittig Albert, is featured prominently and quite early - the China Bayles series being herb-themed and the Darling Dahlias garden-themed. (Personally, I would be surprised if McDowell and Wittig Albert weren't close friends - even their writing styles are extraordinarily similar.) Other beloved authors of mine include Agatha Christie, Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Caroline Keene," Nancy Atherton, M.C. Beaton and Louise Penney.

But despite being "over-the-moon" about some of the authors featured, I can't say the book as a whole was a fantastic read or one that I would ever pick up again; it was informative and provided some interesting anecdotes. I suppose its selling point is that it could be considered a "coffee table" or "collector's" book - perhaps a "gift" book; there are a number of lovely woodblock illustrations, but they are in black and white; everything is black, white and gray - there is no color within the pages. Also, the breadth of writers is quite constrained - McDowell sticks to more of the traditional mystery writer, not the contemporary "thrillers" or "psychological thrillers" that are so popular on Goodreads and BookTube these days (perhaps because gardening is entirely absent in many of those works?). Finally, many of these series are "older" and will likely be hard to find in the public library system.

Still, it perfectly accomplished what my librarian intended: it provided a TBR list for the next five years. ;)

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardening Can Be Murder is a fascinating analysis of the ways in which horticulture has featured in, influenced, and inspired the Crime Fiction genre over the past 150 or so years.
“Writers write what they know, and there are many writer-gardeners. In their gardens, or gardens they research, they discover setting, motive, means, and clue. Gardening offers occupations or avocations for their detectives, suspects, and criminals. The skill of the author transforms the horticultural into the mysterious.“

Meticulously researched by an author who is both a writer and a gardener, her passion for both topics shines through. She starts with examples of detectives who garden, like Nero Wolfe and Miss Marple. Then she examines how gardens feature as murders scenes, how the lust for particular plants can be the prime motive for killing, and how horticultural wisdom can be used to source a range of poisons or gardening tools be wielded as weapons. Conversely, the detective’s knowledge of plants may also help them spot clues or untruths - I liked the explanation of the origin of the term “red herring”. Assiduously avoiding spoilers, McDowell mentions just enough about the selected works to pique one’s interest.
Finally she looks at gardeners themselves and how they can appear as victim or suspect, and the most famous writer-gardeners, including of course the most famous Crime writer of them all, Agatha Christie, and a tantalising description of her house near Torquay, Greenway.

The illustrations - mostly very stylised black and white drawings - are gorgeous and would make awesome T-shirts if the author wanted to branch out (see what I did there? 🤣) into selling merchandise. The cover image is also suitably sinister and would be a good reason to buy this in hardback if available. The list of books referenced, epigraph source list, and index at the end are a comprehensive tally of the range of writers covered in the book - from The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins, published in 1868, to A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons, by Kate Khavari in 2022.
While I read a lot of mystery & crime, I had only heard of a minority of the authors mentioned, and have read even fewer, but they span the breadth of the genre, from hard-boiled to cozy, and historical to psychological. Most crime fans will find plenty of inspiration to grow their TBRs!

Unfortunately this was only available to read through the NetGalley app, so I won’t be able to keep it for future reference once it archives. Overall this would be of interest to anyone who loves gardening - whether that be watering a pot plant or tending multiple acres - and reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily.
Gardening Can Be Murder is published on September 5th.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aptly titled Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell is a spectacularly researched and gorgeously-written book which seemed custom designed for those of us who are passionate gardeners and rabid murder mystery readers. The illustrations are beautiful, fresh and laden with meaning.

I am grateful to travel extensively and visit gardens in every country/region I'm in whether an arboretum, botanic or cottage garden or literary-themed garden. Toxic gardens are equally fascinating. Whether loved by authors or fictional characters, gardens can be murder scenes or boast nooks and crannies for hidden letters or bodies, toxic plants themselves can be used as the murder weapon and can also cause irritation when handled so beware of swarthy thugs brandishing knives on a garden tour who are sporting murderous rashes. Gardens can be settings for theatre and fetes and gardening tools can be used as sharp (or blunt) objects. Though usually wonderful, gardens in books can belie nefarious goings-on.

Whether you enjoy digging into murder mysteries or the soil (or both!), this fun, quirky, charming and informative book could easily be your wheelhouse. Never a dull moment. Not only does the author include how gardens influence(d) writers such as Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Rex Stout, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, P. D. James, Ruth Ware or Dorothy L. Sayers but also how gardens and/or plants figure prominently in their mystery books. Amongst my favourite fictional gardeners include Miss Jane Marple and her cottage gardens and Nero Wolfe's obsession with his orchids which he prefers to people, prioritizing four hours a day caring for them and propagating them. Understandable as plants and gardens are certainly therapeutic.

My sincere thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this stellar book, one which combines two of my (many) favourite hobbies, gardening and murder mysteries. A killer combination.

[Tracee · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If a garden crime scene was good enough for... the Bard, it was good enough for Agatha Christie. A devotee of Shakespeare, her mysteries often allude to his works."

"As the basis for her plot, Stephanie Barron connects the creation of the White Garden to Vita's intimate friend, fellow gardener, and sometime lover, Virginia Woolf.
The White Garden is a literary mystery of gardens. It explores the entanglements of the Bloomsbury Circle, group of artists and writers including Vita and Virginia, often described as 'living in squares and loving in triangles.'"

"'People will sometimes spoil some garden project for the sake of a word. For instance a Blue Garden may be hungering for a group of white lilies, or for something of palest lemon yellow, but is not allowed to have it because it is called the Blue Garden and there must be no flowers in it but blue flowers. Surely the business of the Blue Garden is to be beautiful as well as blue.'"

"In Password to Larkspur Lane (1933) by Carolyn Keene, lead character Nancy Drew has entered a flower show. After the judging, Nancy sees:
Attached to her bouquet of larkspur was a dark-blue satin ribbon with the inscription FIRST PRIZE!
'Nancy, that's wonderful,' her father said. 'Congratulations! Maybe you ought to give up solving mysteries and raise flowers.'
'Not a chance,' she said."

"Its author is its own mystery. That's because Carolyn Keene is the authorial equivalent of Betty Crocker. She never existed. It is a made-up name coined by..."

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you in the mood for a light and breezy book about how gardens and gardeners feature in crime and mystery writing? If so, I have the book for you. I am not a gardener, in fact my great grandparents who ran a greenhouse would be shocked at my inability to understand the finer points of plants and their needs and five years of working on a living history farm did not improve the situation. But it did introduce me to Marta McDowell, the author of Gardening Can Be Murder.

By and large I got what I was looking for here, McDowell works through various areas of writing mechanics and marries them to gardening topics to create her chapters, taking us through Gardening Detectives, Setting, Means, and Authors Who Garden as well as many other spots in under 200 pages. She also includes a booklist to help readers who want to keep exploring the horticultural avenues of mysteries. As I’m not a gardener I don’t think I got as much out of this as others will, but I think it might make a great gift for the combined reader-gardener in your life.

https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...

[Rachel Gable · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a life long murder mystery lover, I jumped at the chance to read this ARC. Finding out the history of how plants are used as inspiration for mystery authors was a very interesting premise to me! Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell breaks down murder plots into sections to study one at a time including clues, means, suspects, settings, etc. I liked McDowell's writing style and recognized many of the stories she used as examples! While very interesting, I was looking for more of a botanical background on the plants and not just what plants were used in which stories. Still very informative and fascinating though!

Thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for sending this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Linda Rowlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a book club. The concept is very interesting — a look at the intersection of gardening and mystery writing.

This book introduced me to a number of new mystery writers to seek in 2024.

I am impressed with McDowell’s knowledge of both gardens and mystery writers. I found her transitions between sections clunky, but I enjoyed the book.

Things I did not like about the book:
The quirky drawings with no captions were often enigmatic rather than illustrative.
I hate misplaced modifiers, and there were quite a few in the form of opening phrases or clauses. Examples:
*Like Pecan Springs in her China Bayles series, author Susan Witig Albert’s detailed descriptions of Darling, Alabama, are vivid. (The phrase modifies Albert as written, but it should be placed to modify Darling.)
*As a writer, they became her favorite means of murder …

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m fascinated by poisonous plants because they’re usually gorgeous, like my beloved datura
This an informative book that made me learn more and discover new areas of knowledge
Recommended if you live plants or are a classic mystery fan
Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher, all opinions are mine

[Jjean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read NF often but this was one of the most interesting books - the research she did on the authors that use "gardens" in their mystery stories is interesting - starts with Agatha Christie, list so many of the old/new great authors - in the back of book, she listed all the books they have written with the published date... it is well worth reading if you read mysteries.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good murder mystery and this focuses on the means of the murder, getting into the details on who used what and how it was cultivated. This was a fascinating look at different series where poison is used as well as what the gardens looked like. A well-researched reference book on gardens and their deadly inhabitants. Highly recommended for those wanting a little more detail on what can be used and where to find them in our favorite reads.

I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting non-fiction about how mystery writers have used gardens and gardeners in their stories. Chapter titles include Setting, Motive, Means, Clues, and Suspects, ending with a chapter on the mystery writers' own gardens. I also found several titles that I'm now interested in reading.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I liked the gardening references more than the mystery book references. I'm not much of a cozy mystery reader, at least not anymore. I did appreciate some of the references to the less cozy references. There were plenty of references to books I'd never heard of before to add to my TBR.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a book that talks about other books (i.e. Book Lust by Nancy Pearl) and this one covers mystery writers with a garden theme. Lots of familiar authors yet many I have not read. Delightful!

[Caitlin Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admittedly a niche fascination, this book tickled me. I’d love to know more about historical context and gardening fads.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book about how mystery writers have used gardening and plants in their stories.

[Shelli Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining read. Not quite what I expected but great for identifying some new mystery reads with a gardening theme to them.

[katie ♥️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

very fun and witty :)

[Katlyn Sons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less a book and more a list of recommendations for other books the involve plants