Hazelnut Homicide - Aromatic Alibis, #5

Mother's Day in Steeplechase is blooming with flowers, family drama… and a fatal dose of poison.

For barista Madison "Beans" Perkins, catering the Historical Society's Mother's Day Tea at the Botanical Gardens should have been a breeze. Her only worries were keeping the petit fours from melting in the heat and stopping her eccentric friend, Mavis, from terrifying the guests with a lecture on poisonous plants. But the afternoon takes a bitter turn when the town's wealthiest and most despised matriarch, Beatrice Thorne, takes a sip from her own antique teacup and drops dead into the prize-winning azaleas.

It quickly becomes clear that Bea was murdered, and the suspect list is shorter than an espresso shot. The victim had just threatened to disinherit her entire family, giving her herbalist daughter-in-law, spineless son, and rebellious granddaughter three hundred million reasons to want her gone.

With the handsome Detective Gabe Miller locking down the garden, Madison dives into the investigation. But between a secret grandson emerging from the shadows, a missing gardener with a machete, and a killer who knows exactly how to extract poison from a foxglove, Madison realizes she's standing on dangerous ground.