The Cactus Club Killings [Paperback]

In a city of fast cars and movie stars, these folks are crazy about cacti. Until a killer joins the club . . .

Joe Portugal likes people. But he likes plants better. That's why the former theater actor turned small-time L.A. commercial star is a prominent member of the Culver City Cactus Club. Unfortunately, so is a killer.

The club's president is dead--a poison succulent lodged into her mouth. With a father who knows a thing or two about murder, and police breathing down his neck, Joe can recognize a jam when he sees one. But when he begins searching through a colorful cast of plant lovers, plant dealers, and even international plant smugglers, he doesn't find the answers he needs. Meanwhile, the killer has struck again, working his way through the Cactus Club with a garden variety motive--and a very green thumb--for murder. . . .

Includes The Joe Portugal Guide to Botanical NomenclatureNathan Walpow has been collecting cacti and other succulent plants for over twenty years and has over 400 specimens in his collection. He is the president of the Sunset Succulent Society, located in Los Angeles. In 1997 his short story "This Bud's for You" was the first fiction ever to appear in theCactus and Succulent Journal, the publication of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America.

Nathan has been writing since 1992. Before that, he had ten years of experience as an actor, working on the stage and on television shows such asMoonlighting, and he is a five-time undefeatedJeopardy!champion.Ultimately, it was the wasp's fault that I plunged Gina into the pool of insecticide. But maybe I shared the responsibility. I could have waited a couple of days, until it was time to go over to Brenda's anyway to feed the canaries, to find out just which variety ofEuphorbia viguieriI had. Gina would have been at work, helping people with too much disposable income decide which overpriced furniture to dispose of it on. The CyglãN