Author Marta McDowell will deliver a lecture at Iowa State University on Oct. 6 about how gardening has influenced the murder mystery genre.
AMES, Iowa – A well-manicured garden provides the perfect setting for rest, peaceful contemplation of nature – and murder most foul?
With their deadly plants, razor-sharp shears, shady corners and ready-made burial sites, gardens make an ideal scene for a murder mystery. Flora and horticulture have had an outsize influence on the literary genre: motive, means, opportunity, victims, villains and detectives. Marta McDowell, a writer, gardener and avid mystery reader, will explore the many ways in which writers – from Edgar Allen Poe and Wilkie Collins to Agatha Christie and some of today’s top crime fiction authors – have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardening during an upcoming lecture at Iowa State University.
The lecture, titled “Gardening Can be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers,” takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, in the Garden Room at Reiman Gardens. The event is free and open to the public.
Ames retailer Dog-Eared Books will have copies of McDowell’s book, which shares its title with the lecture, for attendees to purchase. A portion of each sale will benefit Reiman Gardens.
McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. She’s also the author of “Unearthing The Secret Garden,” about the inspiration for the classic children's book. She was the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America's Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement. McDowell's new book about garden themes in murder mysteries was published in September by Timber Press. Previous books by McDowell and published by Timber Press include “Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life,” “The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” the bestselling “All the Presidents' Gardens” and “Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life,” now in its eighth printing.
This event is cosponsored by Reiman Gardens, Culture Buzz and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.