Death in the Orchid Garden

Gardening Mysteries #10

by Ann Ripley

The lush island of Kauai is the perfect place for Louise Eldridge to film a few episodes of her public television gardening show, especially since an elite botanical conference is taking place at her luxury hotel. Her taste of paradise comes to a halt when three squabbling, prima donna botanists arrive--especially when one of them is found battered to death. Louise is convinced his death was no accident, and with everyone at the hotel a suspect, she'll have to do some serious digging to root out a ruthless killer...

Genres: Cozy Mystery, Mystery, Fiction, Cozy

312 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

A former newspaperwoman, Ann Ripley now spends her time organic-gardening and writing mysteries. She lives with her husband, Tony, in Lyons, Colorado. Her first novel, Mulch, won the Top Hand Award from the Colorado Authors' League. She is now at work on her fifth gardening mystery.

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two murders occur in a tropical paradise as a PBS station is filming a garden show featuring three scientists whose opinions on tropical species and their uses differ dramatically. Do their different opinions fuel these murders or is there another motive? Can PBS garden show hostess, Louise find the culprit or will she become one of the victims? Great descriptions of Hawaii and its beauty. The mystery is a bit slow to take off but once it got going I was very involved.

[Pooch · Rating 1 out of 5]

The opening description of swimming in the man-made lagoon at the hotel in all of its exotic beauty lured me right into the story. However,the extreme detail continued throughout the book, vivid descriptions of place and clothing and people. Way too much detail for this reader. It was a safari through the palm fronds to find the story.

The violence seemed to move this story out of the cozy genre into gruesome territory albeit with azure water and lush plant life.

Sad to say, I am disappointed in this outing with Ann Ripley.

[Mereke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is apparently part of a series of "gardening" murder mysteries - I haven't read its precursors and so a lot of the references to prior events were kind of boring. Too many boring descriptions of characters and their bathing suits (I think there's literally a description of each outfit the main character wears in every scene) and the mystery itself is a little too formulaic (i.e. it's just like playing "Clue" - was it Mr. White or Ms. Scarlet????) Skip it.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

TV garden host, Louise Eldridge is sent to Hawaii with her producer, his wife, and co-host to film a segment including several of the attending horticultural scientists there for a conference. 4 days in, one is found murdered and the remainder held suspect. When a 2nd one meets an even more ghastly, unease prevails amongst the remaining. Who can be trusted, who is next?

Unintentionally thrust into the solving vein when peril befalls her own clique, Louise comes close to an ditto and barely escapes, thanks to a beach stoner and a Hansel-Gretel play with a lei.

A whodunnit I am proud to say I figured out on page 103 of 312, I was nonetheless diverted a time or two in my assumption. Clues are not always beneficial.

A good read with interesting characters beyond the preset, it made the annoyingly stupid risks less so for their reprimands and concern.

[Chris Eirschele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death in the Orchid Garden by Ann Ripley is one of my favorite of the author's garden mysteries. Louise Eldridge and her camera crew are in Hawaii doing shows with botanists and plant hunters.
The bad news is her boss is putting her in as a second stringer; replacing her with the part time guy who knows little about plants.

Lousie feels safe from murders, swimming and taking in the islands' beauty. Then she finds a dead body and, later, lava-flow kills another.

Unlike other Ripley books, her protagonist does not bring her family along for this story. The story lines are all about plants and gardens. My personal preference. The author does still include a garden essay at the back of the book.

Especially for gardeners this cozy mystery will be an enjoyable read.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure...I kill orchids. I live in Iowa and have only been in Honolulu's airport. I don't know anything about tropical plants or the tropics. And, this installment begins with slowly as background is being given for tropical horticulture trade wars and native Hawaiian plants. As always, the cast of characters is interesting. And, reliably, Louise is always the clever and resiliant main character. She is definitely not as wimpy as she was in a previous installment!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice setting - Hawaii.
A good number of flower scientists gather for a conference.
Louise interviews three of them for her show.
Interesting section with a visit to a volcano.
I'd like to go to Hawaii!

[Cindy Grossi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since sheltering here at home, I am making my way through my TBR pile-books I have picked up here and there. This is, I suppose, a cozy mystery and not a very good one. Shallow main character, repetitive info, bad procedure.

[Anamaria Socarras Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

entertaining.

[Karen Holman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very detailed in descriptions of tropical plants. The characters are described very well for this tale, setting is Hawaii, and the ending solved the mystery.

[Scilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Louise Eldridge goes to Kauai to a botanical conference to do her public gardening show with three well known botanists. The scene of the interview is the National Botanic Garden. After the shoot, Louise walks along the beach at the hotel and finds on of her interviewees at the base of the cliff. Although she tries to revive him, he is definitely dead, and murdered. The botanist has been seen in argument with others, even on her show. The police take up an office in the hotel and the botanists and public broadcasting folks must extend their "vacation". Then another botanist is found in the live lava during the visit to Volcano National Park on the big island, and Louise's interview partner is badly burned trying to rescue the famous botanist. As Louise continues to try to figure out the guilty parties, she puts herself in deadly danger.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louise Eldridge is a television personality. She travels to Hawaii to participate in an interview with three well-known horticulturists. When one of them is found dead at the base of a cliff, Louise tries to find out what has happened. This is a bit different from other stories of the like because she actually assists the police in solving the murder instead of going against their wishes. It was a fair cozy and the series has promise.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Cozy" style of murder mystery (thought the two deaths are pretty violent, but not described too much)set in Kauai and Kona. The Hawaiian settings make for a fun read and was what drew me to the book. Part of a gardening mystery series. I may read some of the others.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am both a devout gardener and a devout mystery lover, so I thought this book would be perfect. Unfortunately, it is filled with clichés about women and is rather long-winded about tropical plants. Not recommended.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is another fun and easy read form Ann Ripley.
It is not the type of book that I like to read all the time, but it was a nice diversion from reality.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

She did a really stupid thing at the end, that didn't make much sense but added excitement (I guess) to the story.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it...

[The Twins · Rating 3 out of 5]

entertaining and easy read, love Hawaii as location - loveable characters

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good thriller, set in Hawaii. I will read more books by this author.

[Brena Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So slow and not that good. By no means horrible, but really difficult to keep reading. Just kind of boring...

[Joanie]

Do not like this author.

[Pat]

I have read much better chic books but interesting about the plants in Hawaii.

[Christa (haines) Sheridan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the setting. Some of the characters were just plain annoying.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 - Very Good

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library find!
Enjoyable read!
Second read June 2023.

[Erica]

This book didn't deliver for me at all--on the mystery front, the orchid/plant front, nor the writing front.