SOLVED. Crime mystery about botanist in New Zealand [s]

[Jai]

This story is about an amateur female sleuth, a botanist and/or gardener, who is visiting New Zealand from England and solves a crime. Maybe South Island?
I borrowed it from the library, probably in the 1980s, maybe 1990s?
Similar kind of theme to the TV series Rosemary and Thyme, but that IS NOT it.
Most likely published in the UK.
Does anyone remember it?

[Terri FL]

Would it be one written by Ngaio Marsh? It looks if at least a couple were set in New Zealand by a traveling British detective, but I can't find a gardening/botany link.

[Terri FL]

Never mind the other post. This looks more like it - A Botanist at Bay.

[Jai]

YES! This is absolutely the right book, thank you Terri, that was incredibly quick. All I have to do now is get hold of a copy, and work out where to shift this topic :-)

Have you read this yourself? I think the appeal for me was that I was studying horticulture at the time. Have never had a chance to visit New Zealand though, would love to see all its fascinating flora.

[Kat]

Awesome. I'm a horticulturist, I like mysteries, and I used to live in New Zealand. Would never have found out about this book if it wasn't for your search. Thanks!

[Jai]

I hope you can find it to read, Kat.
Might be a bit of a challenge, the books seem to be out of print and the author has passed away, so the copyright is probably in limbo.
I haven't been able to find it anywhere so far this evening, so tempting and yet so unavailable!

[Jai]

Hmm, have ordered a second hand copy through Amazon, shipping is vastly greater than the cost of the actual book, but after all this trouble to identify it I really really wanted it.

[Terri FL]

I have not actually read it, but, found myself awake at 3 in the morning not being able to get back to sleep (unusual for me) and this puzzle seemed fun. I found a website showing cozy mysteries with a theme of gardening and all kinds of other themes, that had it listed. http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/gard...

I'm not really a 'genre' reader, but, I like well-written and interesting books which fall into many types of genres, if that makes sense. So, I won't read a mystery or sci-if book because it's in that genre, but, rather because I've heard it was a good book.

I hope your memory of the book doesn't let you down when you re-read it!

[Jai]

Thank you for the link, Terri, that's a fascinating website overall, not just the gardening page. Who would have thought of cycle path mysteries? I had come across real estate and cake ones before, but not bicycles.
I agree with your selective approach. I'm finding my tolerance for uninteresting books is waning as the years pass, so I quite often abandon them 10% or 20% of the way through, whereas I used to slog all the way to the end. I only do that for friends' books now.