THE STORY: For Rhoda Greenleaf gardening is all and the presidency of the local garden club her highest goal. But standing in her way is the incumbent, Lillybelle, who peppers her speech with French phrases and is a general pain in the neck. How to

Welcome to Depot, Mississippi. You will see a town peppered with white picket fences, a church on almost every corner, and the most friendly, down-to-earth people around. If you stay long enough, you will feel right at home, but if you break the law, you will run into its best kept secret""the Garden Club. Depot's Garden Club was a group in plain sight and yet invisible at the same time. Whether one needed a cup of sugar, fashion advice, or help burying a body, you can always count on these women to keep the town running smoothly. If you don't believe it, just ask Maybelle Pickett. She was known for one thing and one thing only""gossip. In fact, she was downright good at it. If you wanted to know anything about anybody in her town, all you needed to do was sit on her front porch and rock a spell. There are always three sides to every story. In Depot, Mississippi, it depends on who you ask. If you want the facts, ask the townspeople. If you want a juicy story, ask Maybelle Pickett. But if you want the truth, you will need to wait for the rose.

Picking up from an unfinished manuscript of his late father, Graham Gordon Landrum, Robert Graham Landrum follows the further adventures of the ladies of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the quiet little town of Borderville, Tennessee. When Mrs. Marguerite Claymore, a leading horticulturist, is found bludgeoned to death in her garden, the residents of Borderville are up in arms. A respected member of society noted for her many contributions, Mrs. Claymore seems to have been the least likely candidate for such a terrible crime. It appears that Mrs. Claymore interrupted a thief in the process of looting her house. A teenage boy stands accused of the crime, and his family enlists the spunky octogenarian sleuth Harriet Bushrow to clear his name. Harriet soon finds several people from Mrs. Claymore's past who may have had a reason to do away with the often cantankerous and dictatorial old woman. A string of unsolved robberies may also be connected. In The Garden Club Mystery, Robert Landrum pays a unique tribute to his father by co-creating the magic of the fictional town of Borderville and its much-loved characters.