Outskirts Press, INC.

Perhaps best described as a comic novel in the guise of a murder mystery, COMPOST MORTEM takes place in the well-to-do (and low crime) village of Deer Creek. The unthinkable happens when the battered body of Eunice Kingblade, President of the Deer Creek Garden Club, turns up in the village mulch site. Many people had reason to wish her dead. She was trying to prevent the developer Dash Lethaby from buying the mulch site and building houses there. Her husband could no longer stand her and was having an affair with a much younger woman. Over the years, Eunice’s vindictive cruelty had afflicted members of her garden club and the rival Garden Club of St. James, as well as Deer Creek’s mayor, police and Department of Public Works. Garden club members Grace Mere and Ivy Wilcoxen decide to investigate Eunice’s murder after the arrest of someone they are convinced is innocent. Their quest reveals the quirks, foibles and the sometimes downright silliness of small town life. (When is it gin and tonic weather? How dangerous can a French Canadian casserole really be? Will the mayor dare to eat lunch at the country club again?) Along the way, we encounter the good intentions, kindness and humor that can be found in life everywhere.