This Ain't No Garden Party

In a boldly personal move, Police Chief Wayne Gallant has arranged a meeting between his children and Bellehaven's beloved librarian Helma Zukas. But the fates have not yet smiled on this pair, as the long overdue introductions are interrupted -- by murder. For not only is Helma's newest neighbor pushing up roses in her garden, her latest crop's a corpse. And when the chief's investigation has him digging too close to the truth, he's helped to a nearly fatal fall from a cliff, a potentially incriminating library book found within reach.

The police demand the library turn over the borrower's name. Determined to uphold the privacy rights of library patrons, the ever mindful Miss Zukas deletes the information from library records -- but not before she takes note of it. And now it's up to Helma -- with teenagers in tow and an assist from bohemian buddy Ruth -- to get to the bottom of this murderous mess before Wayne Gallant's assailant makes sure the evidence Miss Zukas holds is shelved...permanently.

• modern mysteries