Ruby Madder’s Field Guide To Poisonous Plants by Michelle Heimburger
Two years ago her life was millionaires’ pool parties and posh private school. Now 15-year-old Ruby Bartek spends her free time helping with her divorced mom’s gardening business and updating her website, Ruby Madder’s Field Guide to Poisonous Plants, instead of having a social life. But her ticket back into her old world — a scholarship to the exclusive Sloane Academy — only makes things worse. Her classmates know all about the scandal that fractured Ruby’s family and uprooted them to the poor side of town. And Addie, Ruby’s former best friend, hasn’t just moved on: She’s skyrocketed up the social ladder with her new BFF, Sloane queen bee Taylor Hampton.
When Taylor is poisoned shortly after a very public argument with Ruby, rumors spread like dandelions in a suburban lawn. Ruby’s fascination with deadly toxins would be bad enough on its own, but her family’s history with the Hamptons — who had more than a little to do with the Barteks’ fall from grace — makes Ruby and her mom prime suspects. To clear her family and save any chance of ever putting down roots at Sloane, Ruby must find out what plant poisoned Taylor, and who — other than the Barteks — would have the knowledge and motive to use it.
RUBY MADDER’S FIELD GUIDE TO POISONOUS PLANTS, a 78,000-word contemporary YA mystery, is Veronica Mars meets Flavia de Luce in a wealthy Columbus, Ohio, suburb where toxic secrets lurk in impeccably landscaped yards and the most beautiful blooms hide the deadliest poisons.
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