The Black Orchid Files

A botanist dies beneath a glass roof. A black orchid points to a decades-old crime.

Mara Vale has spent three months rebuilding Black Orchid's reputation after exposing the secrets that nearly destroyed her. She thought the worst was behind her.

At the grand reopening of Hollow Garden, a restored Victorian greenhouse at the edge of town, respected botanist Dr. Celia Wren collapses beside a display of white lilies — and dies with her hand locked around Mara's wrist.

Her final words are meant for Mara alone: "Your aunt knew what grew beneath the glass."

Hidden inside the flowers, Mara finds a black orchid petal marked with the same symbol from June's secret ledger. Soon she and Detective Elias Rook are uncovering a sealed conservatory, a missing fire report rewritten three times, and a groundskeeper who supposedly died in a blaze twenty-five years ago — until a woman no one has seen in a quarter century sends Mara a warning of her own.

As the investigation draws closer to Black Orchid, Mara must decide who can be trusted: a charming distant relative with too many answers, a friend carrying a decade of guilt, and a town that has spent twenty-five years perfecting the art of looking away.

The Hollow Garden is the second Black Orchid mystery, featuring a more confident florist sleuth, a detective learning when the rules aren't enough, a family fortune built on secrets, and a mystery that reaches back further than anyone in town is willing to admit.