The Herbalist's House: A DI Rowan Penhallow mystery

by Wendy Cartmell

A beloved village herbalist. A cipher only she could read. A sixty-year-old secret someone will kill to keep buried.

When Eda Trebilcock is found dead in her garden on the fringes of Exmoor, DI Rowan Penhallow suspects what the village refuses to this was no accident. Eda's crowded stillroom and forty-three private notebooks hold seventy years of a parish's confided griefs, recorded in a code built from the Victorian language of flowers. As Rowan, DS Marcus Trewe, and Dr. Eliza Carne begin to decode it, a 1963 scandal claws its way into the light — a young woman's death, a respected doctor's cover-up, and a family's reputation built on another woman's stolen silence.

With Buddy the Jack Russell leading them to evidence no human would have found, Rowan must unravel sixty years of quiet cruelty before whoever silenced Eda decides there's one more secret left to protect.

The twelfth novel in the beloved DI Rowan Penhallow series, for readers of LJ Ross, Rachel McLean and Ann Cleeves.

189 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2026

About the author

I was a Primary School Teacher before leaving England to settle in Spain nearly five years ago. I previously worked in Sales, Marketing and Public Relations for large and small companies. I now write crime novels featuring Sgt Major Crane a detective in the Special Investigations Branch of the British Army, based on Aldershot Garrison. My inspiration for Sergeant Major Crane was my love of crime writing and my husband’s 22 years service in the British Army.

I attend a lively Writing Group who unashamedly meet at beautiful beach side cafes on the Costa del Sol.