Genre:
Cozy/Traditional Mysteries, Period Pieces, Poetry
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Social Media:
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Writing Awards
Death in a Desert Garden won the 2022 Arizona/New Mexico Book award for cozy mystery, the spring Firebird Awards for western fiction and cozy mystery, as well as the CIPA/EVVY bronze award for cozy mystery.
Bio
Marty Eberhardt is a retired botanical garden executive director and nonprofit professional who now prefers to use the right side of her brain to write fiction. Death in a Desert Garden, her first novel, won the Arizona/New Mexico Book Award for cozy mystery in 2022, as well as two Firebird awards and a CIPA/EVVY award. Bones in the Back Forty, out in January, 2023, is the second in the Bea Rivers botanical garden mystery series. Marty and her husband divide their time between Tucson and the small mountain town of Silver City, NM, enjoying the flora, fauna, and quirky characters of both locations. Find her at martyeberhardt.com.
Books
Title: Crime on the Coast (Bea Rivers Mystery Book 3)
Publisher: Artemesia Publishing, LLC (February 24, 2026)
Genre: Cozy/Traditional Mystery
Bea Rivers has had three years to settle into her new role as the executive director of Shandley Gardens. She loves the job even if it sometimes interferes with raising her family. Out of the blue she is invited by an old college friend, Paige Pearson, to attend an intimate botanical garden conference at the seaside La Jolla Gardens in exclusive La Jolla, California. Bea decides to attend and convinces her friend Lila Busby, who just became the director of a garden in New Mexico, to attend as well. The conference gets off to a shaky start and Bea can sense that something is worrying Paige. But before Bea can learn what is upsetting her friend, Paige falls from the 300-foot cliff behind the gardens to the beach below. The police begin their investigation and refuse to say whether Paige’s death was a suicide or murder. Bea begins her own investigation, trying to determine what Paige had been so concerned about and who might have wanted her dead. Bea soon learns that many of the other attendees had good reasons to wish Paige gone. As Bea’s investigation uncovers the garden’s secrets, she realizes that she is dealing with some very powerful and malevolent forces.
Available for Sale:
Title: Bones in the Back Forty (Bea Rivers Mystery Book 2)
Publisher: Artemesia Publishing, LLC (January 10, 2023)
Genre: Cozy/Traditional Mystery
A gardener digs up an old skeleton on the grounds of Shandley Gardens. Volunteer coordinator Bea Rivers discovers that the victim, a man who disappeared in 1969, may be connected to a small town in New Mexico, where he’d made quite a few enemies among amateur archaeologists. There may be some connection with illegal artifacts . . . and with Shandley Gardens’ founders. As Bea is drawn into the investigation, she meets an ever-increasing cast of quirky suspects. What began as an intriguing puzzle becomes considerably more threatening, while Bea negotiates single parenthood, a long distance relationship, and huge new job responsibilities. She needs to untangle what is happening, for Shandley Gardens and for the safety of her own family.
Available for Sale:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local bookstore
Title: Death in a Desert Garden (Bea Rivers Mystery)
Publisher: Artemesia Publishing, LLC (October 5, 2021)
Genre: Cozy/Traditional Mystery
Death in a Desert Garden, Bea Rivers’ euphoria over her new job at Shandley Gardens is shattered by the death of the Gardens’ founder, Liz Shandley. When the police determine that she was murdered, Bea is drawn into the investigation, while trying desperately to maintain the life of a committed single parent dating a struggling writer. Every one of the members of the small staff and board are murder suspects. Through the sizzling and beautiful days of a Sonoran Desert summer, someone keeps dropping odd botanical clues. As Bea’s family’s safety is threatened, she discovers just how tangled the relationships at the Gardens really are.
Available for Sale:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local bookstore