The Last Leaf Falls
(2025)(The fifth book in the Flora's Garden Mystery series)
A Story by Maisy Marple
When beauty kills, only the truth can bloom
In the picturesque coastal town of Rosemere Harbor, garden shop owner Flora Greenfield's expertise in botanical forensics becomes crucial when renowned orchid authenticator Dr. Cornelius Thornbury is found murdered in the new museum's climate-controlled vault. As Flora uses her plant knowledge to uncover clues in specialized fertilizers and paralytic orchid extracts, she discovers a massive forgery operation that has been replacing priceless Victorian orchids with elaborate fakes for over fifteen years.
With Detective Basil Thornwood, Flora must navigate a maze of suspects including desperate museum directors, bitter former academics, and master forgers, all while someone systematically destroys evidence and threatens anyone who gets too close to the truth. When Flora's own cherished orchid collection is vandalized and a key witness disappears, she realizes the killer will stop at nothing to protect their secret garden of stolen beauty.
As the investigation leads from a hidden greenhouse operation to a dramatic confrontation at an abandoned lighthouse, Flora must use both her botanical expertise and her grandmother's wisdom to expose a killer whose obsession with preserving beauty has turned deadly. In a town where everyone has secrets buried as deep as roots, Flora learns that sometimes the most dangerous gardens are those cultivated in darkness, and that the difference between passion and destruction can be as delicate as an orchid's bloom.
Genre: Mystery
In the picturesque coastal town of Rosemere Harbor, garden shop owner Flora Greenfield's expertise in botanical forensics becomes crucial when renowned orchid authenticator Dr. Cornelius Thornbury is found murdered in the new museum's climate-controlled vault. As Flora uses her plant knowledge to uncover clues in specialized fertilizers and paralytic orchid extracts, she discovers a massive forgery operation that has been replacing priceless Victorian orchids with elaborate fakes for over fifteen years.
With Detective Basil Thornwood, Flora must navigate a maze of suspects including desperate museum directors, bitter former academics, and master forgers, all while someone systematically destroys evidence and threatens anyone who gets too close to the truth. When Flora's own cherished orchid collection is vandalized and a key witness disappears, she realizes the killer will stop at nothing to protect their secret garden of stolen beauty.
As the investigation leads from a hidden greenhouse operation to a dramatic confrontation at an abandoned lighthouse, Flora must use both her botanical expertise and her grandmother's wisdom to expose a killer whose obsession with preserving beauty has turned deadly. In a town where everyone has secrets buried as deep as roots, Flora learns that sometimes the most dangerous gardens are those cultivated in darkness, and that the difference between passion and destruction can be as delicate as an orchid's bloom.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Maisy Marple's The Last Leaf Falls