Elsemarie Maletzke
The Magnolia Murder: A Garden Mystery
novel
248pp (49,000 words)
Simon Jankowski’s weakness is his beloved magnolias. In order to save them, he enters into a dangerous agreement with a blackmailer. Simon has more to lose than his job and reputation. A respected scientist at the arboretum in the Polish town of Kórnik, he is smuggling rare and highly protected plants out of the country.
When a colleague finds out about his scheme and threatens to expose him as well as to destroy a rare magnolia tree in the arboretum, Simon agrees to courier a mysterious package to Frankfurt and deposit it at the old Jewish cemetery. As a pretext he uses a research assignment that involves lodging with Elinor Sander, owner of a dilapidated Frankfurt mansion, whose garden offers access to the cemetery.
Yet the mission fails: the package goes missing. When Elinor discovers it, Simon finds himself in mortal danger and Elinor becomes a hunted woman.
THE MAGNOLIA MURDER is an elegantly buoyant thriller about a polite magnolia expert and a reserved gardener brought together by a crime.
»Maletzke’s writing is like a garden full of gloriously colourful flowers […]. She also has enough cunning to plot a genuinely thrilling and entertaining novel.«
Karola Schepp, Gießener Allgemeine
Reviews
»Extraordinarily well-written, very vivid, with wit, verve and elegance.«
Hessischer Rundfunk (hr2 kultur)
»An amusing crime thriller with an ironically twisted plot.«
Ingrid Müller-Münch, WDR 5 Scala
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