The star of public televisions top garden show, Louise Eldridge is something of a celebrity. But when a dead body is planted in her backyard, shes in for notoriety of a different kind... Summer is the season for disquiet in Louises Sylvan Valley cul de sac, and the tradition continues when an uninvited guest crashes a neighborhood soiree. Five years ago, Louise identified Peter Hoffman as the mulch murderer. Now hes been released from a Virginia state mental institution. Leaving the party doesnt put enough distance between Louise and Hoffman, who has a thing or two to say to herand actually has the nerve to follow her home to air his grievances. Shaken by the incident, Louise and family decide to take a little R&R at the beach in the hope that Hoffman will have moved on by the time they return. When they get back from vacation, Hoffmans moved on all rightbut not in quite the way Louise had hoped. Hes been missing for seven days, and Louise is the one who finds himburied beneath her native azalea patch. Things go from bad to worse once the police learn that someone saw Louise planting one of the nights she was supposed to be out of town. With suspicion buzzing around her, she starts doing some snooping among her friendlyand not-so-friendly-neighbors, including high-powered attorney Mike Cunningham, who may have had a shady business deal going with Hoffman; Hilde, an apprentice gardener with something to hide; and Hoffmans own widow, whose relationship with her husband wasnt exactly a bed of roses. But before Louise can make any serious headway, another murder victim turns upfelled by a garden claw covered in Louises fingerprints. Now, with more than just her television career in jeopardy, Louise will have to dig up some serious clues to bring a killer to lightbefore another person winds up as fertilizer