The Secret Poison Garden - Paperback

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!