The Victim Did It First: A Carne Cove Mystery

Instead, she finds herself drawn into a mystery that begins with a dead woman at the bottom of a garden staircase—and a foxglove growing where it shouldn't be.

Rosalind Vane is a respected gardener, a powerful presence in the village, and a woman with a history of complicated relationships and old rivalries. Her death initially appears to be a tragic cardiac event. But Nell, a garden writer with an expert eye for plants, notices something others have overlooked: a carefully cultivated foxglove positioned beside the steps.

As Nell starts asking questions, the seemingly peaceful village reveals a web of old grievances, buried secrets, inheritance disputes, professional rivalries, and carefully maintained silences. Then a decades-old death begins to look very different.

The deeper Nell digs, the more she discovers that Rosalind's death may be connected to something that happened long before she arrived in Carne Cove.

Someone has waited years for the truth to surface.

And when Nell finally discovers who killed Rosalind, she realizes the mystery is far more complicated than a simple question of who is guilty and who is innocent.

Because sometimes the victim was not the first person to commit a crime.

The Victim Did It First is a slow-burn coastal mystery featuring botanical clues, hidden history, village secrets, and a morally complicated investigation that will keep you questioning what justice really means.