The Water Lily Cross: An English Garden Mystery (English Garden Mysteries)

Lawrence Kingston is asked to search fora botanist friend who has gone missing. With nothing but a scrap of paper with a bewildering cryptic message, he begins to investigate.He discovers that his friend was experimenting with aquatic plants and has stumbled on a horticultural breakthrough with staggering implications, one that could ultimately generate billions of dollars in revenue: a unique and giant form of Amazonian water lily.Convinced that influential people are involved in the disappearance, he pursues more leads,but circumstances beyond his control plunge him deeper into jeopardy and a corporate world of ruthless, greedy men who are not to be stopped. Kingston presses on, knowing that his missing friend's life--and his own--both hang by a very slender thread. As with the highly acclaimed The Lost Gardens , Eglin brings his botanical and literary skill to this new mystery. From Publishers Weekly Eglin's engaging third horticultural cozy (after 2006's Lost Gardens ) pits retired London botanist Lawrence Kingston against rapacious, lawless foes when his longtime friend and colleague, Stewart Halliday, goes missing. Drawing on his cruciverbalist skills, Kingston interprets a coded message in his friend's date book that leads to another cryptogram. Clues indicate that Halliday discovered how to desalinate seawater with a unique crossbred water lily, a scientific breakthrough with potentially far-reaching benefitsand profitability. Kingston believes Halliday has been kidnapped because of the salt-sucking lilies, and even when Kingston is nearly shot down on a helicopter flight, he remains dogged in pursuit of his missing friend. Fans of the brave and erudite Kingston will savor his latest breakneck botanical adventure. (May) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist In this third in the series, after The Blue Rose 2004) and The Lost Gardens (2006), retired botany professor Lawrence Kingston of London will not be deterred from searching for missing friend and former colleague Stewart Halliday, despite Kingston's being shot down in a helicopter, knocked on the head, and warned explicitly to desist. Halliday's disappearance, as Kingston rightly suspects, is linked to his secret research to crossbreed a giant water lily that can remove salt from water, a scientific breakthrough with huge financial potential. Descriptions of notable English gardens and information about desalination processes add interest to this mystery, in which--in the cozy tradition--violence is limited, and murders occur offstage. Series fans will be intrigued by the appearance of a mysterious woman, somehow involved in the wrongdoing, who adds a the possibility of romance for widower Kingston. Overlook the occasional dangling participle, and enjoy seeing justice prevail in the English manner. Michele Leber Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved Searching for a missing botanist friend, Lawrence Kingston discovers that the missing man had been experimenting with aquatic plants and had been on the verge of announcing a horticultural breakthrough that could generate billions of dollars in revenue