Joshua Pope, Esquire, a painter of portraits of certain reknown is interrupted late one night by an unexpected visitor. She has a challenge for him, but not an artistic one. He was once a witness to a series of events - beginning and ending in murder - the mystery of which has never been solved. His enigmatic visitor believes that, unbeknownst to him, Joshua holds the key that will finally unlock the truth.
Twenty years previously, he had painted a wedding portrait, that of the widowed landowner Herbert Bentnick and his new bride, Elinor Mercier. Soon after his first wife's death Bentnick met Miss Mercier in the West Indies. His impressive manor house and gardens, Astley House in Richmond, were testament to his abiding enthusiasm for all matters horticultural, and it was for this reason that he was now in the Indies.
Indeed it was matters horticultural that had brought the two lovers together. Miss Mercier was expert in the cultivation of pineapples. These curious fruits had just begun to appear in Georgian England and the country has gone wild for this new extravagant delicacy. Pineapples were the height of fashion, served at only the most refined dinner parties and providing inspiration for painters and architects across the country.
To bring back some palms and grow them successfully in England would be the greatest coup. Their shared love of gardening quickly becomes something more and plans were made for their return to England.
As preparations for their wedding and for the pinery to house their new collection of palms progressed, everything seemed to be running perfectly. That is until one day a rude intrusion shatters their happiness. A body is discovered in the pinery.
The murdered corpse is the first link in a chain of events that will uproot their comfortable lives and dredge up secrets thought safely buried in the past. Can Joshua Pope solve this dormant mystery? And more pressingly, as his investigation progresses, can he stay alive long enough to finally reveal the truth?
