Terrace fiction writer sticks to the facts with birds and botany

Facts matter to fiction writer Marty Wingate.

As a former garden columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, freelance writer and author of how-to books, facts framed all Wingate’s writing. So when a friend suggested years ago over a cup of tea that she write a mystery with a gardener as the main character, the journalist demurred.

“I told her I didn’t write fiction,” Wingate recalled. “She continued to suggest this every once in a while, until I thought, ‘Well, all right, let’s see what happens.’”

Success happened.

Some seven years after the friendly challenge, Wingate is a popular author of not one but two series of mysteries.

Her “Potting Shed” books star Prunella “Pru” Parke, a highly sought-after ex-Texan professional gardener, and Pru’s retired detective husband, Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse. They meet over a murder investigation, natch, and now unravel clues of peculiar items that show up in gardens all over England — piles of bones, a buried World War II plane, a body here and there.

Following the success of her first book, “The Garden Plot,” Wingate wrote five more books in that series.

Wingate also takes flight with her whodunit “Birds of a Feather” series, featuring Julia Lancaster, daughter of an ornithologist.

After quitting her father’s BBC nature show “A Bird in the Hand,” Julia heads off to the English countryside to manage a tourist information center. Wingate has four books in that series, “The Rhyme of the Magpie,” “Empty Nest,” “Every Trick in the Rook” and the just-released “Farewell, My Cuckoo.”

The books are e-books only, distributed by Alibi, a digital-only imprint from Penguin Random House.

“Although it would be nice to see my books in print, I’m happy that my books are so well cared for by my editor and copy editor and public relations department — and that they are so reasonably priced,” Wingate said. “I don’t really miss the hard copy.”

Both series take place in the United Kingdom, where Wingate can usually be found when not writing or tending to the gardens at her Mountlake Terrace home.

“I am, indeed, a true Anglophile,” Wingate admitted. “When we come home from a trip, my suitcase is full of Yorkshire Gold tea bags. So both my series are set in England — in “Birds of a Feather,” Julia Lanchester pretty much stays put in Suffolk, but in the “Potting Shed” books, Pru tends to hop around a bit.”

In 2002, long before her launch as a mystery writer, Wingate teamed with a travel agent to offer small tours of English gardens. This June, she’s set to take a group to the Channel Islands and Isle of Wight.

Wingate is a true believer that travel broadens minds.

And that visiting a variety of gardens plants many ideas and increases the “plant palette.”

Typically, the 10-night tours include full accommodations in destinations throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and occasionally France. The tours have included famous places, such as Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst, as well as private gardens and trips to flower shows.

“Admiring gardens, getting to know the locals, learning about the history, and sitting down with a cup of tea or a pint of ale — this is what our tours are about,” she said. “And, conveniently, these tours offer great opportunities for researching the next book.”

Wingate, 64, also continues to write articles and columns for The American Gardener and Country Gardens magazine.

Although her sleuthing characters are a figment of her imagination — or more likely, a tweaked version of a real friend or acquaintance — all the information about flower, fauna, botany and birds is dead-on accurate, so to speak.

Besides being a master gardener and holding a master’s degree in urban horticulture from the University of Washington, Wingate’s “just the facts ma’am” background won’t let her stray too far into flights of fancy.

“All gardening and bird information in both my series is correct,” she said. “I knew most of the gardening stuff and have been a member of the Royal Horticulture Society for many years.

“For my ‘Birds of a Feather’ series, I have learned a lot about British birds. I joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds a few years ago, and have relied on their experts.”

For instance, when penning “Empty Nest,” Wingate said she asked about the poisoning of predatory birds.

Writing fiction also gives her a chance to continue learning a little about a lot, the basic job description of a reporter.

“I love magpies — one of the few species North America has in common with Europe — and used them in the first book, ‘The Rhyme of the Magpie,’ ” Wingate said.

A sense of place and history are also woven into her mysteries.

Besides taking readers on the twists and turns of a crime-solving journey, she also enjoys the fun and pun of a play on words, such as the book titles “Every Trick in the Rook” and “Best-Laid Plants.”

Wingate has been named a USA Today bestselling author as well as won praise from critics in many corners, with one saying “you don’t need a ‘green thumb’ to enjoy” the “Potting Shed” mysteries.

Or, presumably, be a bird nerd to follow the “Birds of a Feather” series.

Words, be they fact or fiction, fill the Wingate household.

Marty’s husband, Leighton Wingate, also worked at The Seattle P-I as an editor.

“We live in a house of words,” the mystery author declared. “Beware, you random scrap of paper.”

Washington North Coast Magazine

This article is featured in the spring issue of Washington North Coast Magazine, a supplement of The Daily Herald. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each quarterly magazine. Each issue is $3.99. Subscribe to receive all four editions for $14 per year. Call 425-339-3200 or go to www. washingtonnorthcoast.com for more information.