Walpow's new book, Death of an Orchid Lover , opens with Joe Portugal, a part-time actor, attending an orchid meeting with a lady friend Gina, and the president of the Cactus Club, Sam. None of these people were particularly interested in orchids but were attending out of a sense of social obligation. Before Joe could escape to a business obligation, he was shown a greenhouse filled with orchids. Joe shares his reaction to this visit:
Some of the orchids would have looked at home on a high school senior's wrist on prom night. Others I wouldn't have suspected were orchids, were they not in an orchid house. Their blooms had weird wings, long spurs, whiskers, other appendages. Sizes ranged from dessert plate down to a quarter inch or less. Some of the flower stalks poked up to eye level; some dangled over the lips of pots. Every once in a while I would catch a whiff of scent. Sometimes I could track it down, sometimes I couldn't. [page 11]
Without revealing too much, I'll tell you that Albert, the gentlemen who led the tour of the orchid filled greenhouse was dead by evening! One of his friends enlists Joe Portugal's aid in finding the killer and she winds up dead too. Of course, the remainder of the book details Portugal's efforts to find the killer. I won't give the ending away because that spoils a good mystery.
Nathan Walpow, once again, has weaved information about plants into his mystery. I love this style of writing. While I normally would not enjoy reading about people being killed, I love Walpow's mystery series. I really appreciate the final chapter, called "The Joe Portugal Guide to Orchids." I know Walpow tries to make the information regarding plants within the mystery as accurate as possible. You can find information about purchasing this book at his website. You can view pictures of some of the orchids mentioned in the book here. I hope he has another book in the works.
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