The Second Penny Summers Murder Mystery

In Malice at the Manor, Penelope and her landscape design professor, Madison Lerrimore, visit Flat Rock North Carolina to study the famous Brantleigh Manor gardens where Wayland, Madison’s estranged stepfather, a landscape docent, is found dead. Unwilling to accept the Medical Examiner’s finding of her stepfather’s death, Madison begs Penny to help find his murderer.

Penny’s first priority was to return to Annapolis and complete her first landscape design commission but now must stay in North Carolina to help her friend and mentor. Assisted by Madison’s brilliant eleven-year-old adopted daughter, Kalea, Penny follows sinuous paths to the truth–paths not designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned turn-of-the-century landscape architect of Brantleigh Manor.

At a Civil War battle reenactment, Penny is bumfuzzled by Madison’s seemingly accidental wounding. Visiting Madison as she recovers from surgery, Penny learns more about her friend than she ever wanted to know.

Penny soon learns that Madison’s stepfather was involved in a three-way scam involving the sale of a priceless Civil War battle flag. Madison stands to inherit his stash of cash unless the two surviving conspirators find it first.