Author Description

Edenville, a sleepy New England town, is surprised to learn that one its prominent citizens, Prudence Jones, has been taken to the hospital in a coma where she subsequently dies. Her husband, Clyde, and half-sister, April, are charged with her murder—April for providing her brother-in-law with an alibi. April had moved to Edenville to live with her half-sister when their mother died—a condition in their mother's will. We learn that April has a friend, Mary, who accompanied her to Edenville. In the trial that follows, the prosecution accuses Clyde of having an affaire with April and that he poisoned his wife by cooking a substance containing anthraquinone glycosides, in order to marry April, and thereby enjoy the entire inheritance from his wife's mother. When called to testify, April avoids perjuring herself by admitting that she was in the reserve room of the university library at the time of her half-sister's murder, leaving Clyde without an alibi. The prosecution then drops charges against her. After Clyde pleads guilty to a lesser charge and is convicted, April transfers to the University of Hawaii with the help of her English professor at the local university, Professor Aaron, who acts as the narrator of the story. Aside from being April's English professor, he is an amateur botanist. Prof. Aaron is invited by the University of Hawaii to give lectures, and is met at the airport by April, who invites him to her home that she shares with her friend Mary. When he arrives at April’s home, April apologizes that Mary could not be with them as she had an urgent meeting. Aaron remarks on her garden, noting many New England plants, like rhubarb. On returning to Edenville, Professor Aaron is troubled by the absence of Mary—whom he's never seen—and a reference by April to rhubarb she had called her talisman. Probing further, he learns facts that are at odds with what April had told him