The Pale Groundskeeper

Wren Ashcombe has taken the head gardener job at Thornfield Reach, a Bainbridge Island estate sinking gracefully into Puget Sound. The pay is good. The previous groundskeeper is still on staff. He is also still, technically, in the ground. Silas Wick died in 1991 and has continued pruning the hedges, deadheading the roses, and offering unsolicited advice about mulch. Thornfield Reach is the only thing holding Bainbridge Island in place, and the contract requires a living gardener. Wren's predecessor broke it. The island has been drifting ever since. Now a storm is coming, the ferry lanes are close, and Wren has to decide what she is willing to sign away to keep a garden — and a very polite dead man — above water. A cozy fantasy mystery of damp hedges, old bargains, and a groundskeeper who simply will not retire.