#19 John Putnam Thatcher, with Wall Street banking firm Sloan.

Most of the action takes place at a plant conference in Chicago. Published 1982. Sloan’s large firm Standard Foods has recently acquired Vandam Nursery & Seed Company. A small company Wisconsin Seedsman, Inc. has brought a lawsuit against Vandam, claiming that their newest star, the Numero Uno tomato, had been developed by them and stolen by Vandam.

I might have enjoyed this even more if I'd read others in the series first instead of starting with #19! ( )

One of the later in the series finds John Putnam Thatcher embroiled in the patent dispute between an old established seed company and a new, small one. Who developed the revolutionary new tomato and why did it lead to murder? an interesting mystery.

A legal wrangle over a super tomato leads to a string of murders. The usual impeccable performance by John Putnam Thatcher and Miss Corsa. ( )