The Secret Poison Garden - Paperback

by Maureen Klovers (Author)

If you love cozy mysteries with strong, funny female sleuths, mouth-watering food, and small-town secrets, you'll fall hard for Rita Calabrese in The Secret Poison Garden.

Perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin and Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, this delightful culinary cozy mystery introduces Rita Calabrese, a no-nonsense Italian-American matriarch who stumbles into sleuthing-and stirs up trouble-in her charming Hudson Valley town.

After a lifetime of cooking for her boisterous famiglia, sneaking cannoli into her husband's lunch, and meddling (with love!) in her adult children's lives, Rita is ready for something new. When she lands a job writing human interest stories for the local paper, she quickly becomes a local celebrity-especially after profiling a shy science teacher who secretly grows poisonous plants in his backyard.

But things take a deadly turn when the town's beloved football coach is found murdered. As rumors swirl about a love triangle gone wrong-and a possible link to Rita's own son-Rita's instincts as a mother and a reporter go head-to-head. Can she uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Set against the picturesque backdrop of New York's Hudson Valley, The Secret Poison Garden is a warm and witty mystery full of Italian flavor, neighborly drama, and eight delicious, garden-to-table Italian-American recipes.

Fans of cozy whodunits, amateur sleuths, family dynamics, and foodie fiction won't want to miss this first book in the Rita Calabrese Culinary Mystery Series!

Author Biography

Maureen Klovers is the creator of the Rita Calabrese garden-to-table culinary mystery series set in New York's Hudson Valley; the Jeanne Pelletier amateur sleuth series set in Washington, DC; and the memoir "In the Shadow of the Volcano: One Ex-Intelligence Official's Journey through the Slums, Prisons, and Leper Colonies to the Heart of Latin America." As suggested by the title of her memoir, Maureen has served as a U.S. intelligent agent; taught in the shantytowns of Quito, Ecuador; toured a notorious Bolivian prison in the company of a German narcotrafficker; and been inspired by some of the most positive, life-affirming people on the planet-residents of a facility for those suffering from Hansen's disease (the new name for leprosy). She loves poking around forgotten corners of DC; speaking Italian, testing recipes for Italian-American classics (which will later work their way into the Rita Calabrese series!), and traveling to Italy; and spending time with her incredibly supportive husband, fun (but exhausting!) toddler, and energetic black Lab.