DEAD LADY AT GREEN MEADOWS, by Corrilla D. Hastings, Windswept House, Mount Desert, 243 pages, paperback, $8.95.

It is clear from both the language and the content of Corrilla Hastings’ first novel that she has plenty of experience in the garden. “Dead Lady at Green Meadows” is a mystery set at a plant nursery in central Maine, a mirror of Hastings’ life. For 30 years, she and her husband, James, operated Brick Farm Nursery in Skowhegan.

Published by Windswept House of Mount Desert, the book is packed with references to perennials, plantings and prunings. “I had 30 years of experience to draw on,” said Hastings recently.

A graduate of Wellesley College with a degree in botany, Hastings didn’t have to do much research to present factual horticultural details for the book.

“I wanted to write a book that was fun and `Maine-y’,” Hastings said. After participating in writers’ groups and workshops for 10 years, Hastings said “Green Meadows” took her a year to write.

But she’s quick to explain that her main character, Nell, is not patterned after herself. “Although she’s still in my head and I really like her, she’s not me. She’s Nell,” said Hastings.

For any gardener or anyone interested in how a real nursery operates, the book will be quite enjoyable and an easy read.

However, anyone looking for deep, richly portrayed characters, won’t find them.

This is a lighthearted mystery meant to entertain, not challenge. “This is not a bloodcurdling book. It isn’t scary. It’s a mystery full of horticultural information,” said Hastings.

Hastings has wound a simple murder around the lives of the two partners in the nursery, Nell Cooper and Tony Patterson. College pals, the two seem to balance each other quite well: Nell with her common-sense attitude about nursery operations, and Tony with a much more enthusiastic, spur-of-the-moment lifestyle.

Their nursery — and their respective families — are located in a fictitious central Maine community and there are comforting references throughout to solidly Maine things such as the Sea Dogs and fiddleheads.

When a body suddenly turns up on the compost heap at the nursery, Nell decides to become an amateur detective, and, along with her friend, Molly, begins sleuthing.

Despite introducing varied and charming people, Hastings fails to draw the reader in because she fails to give her characters any depth. Their conversations skim the surface and really don’t tell the reader much about the person speaking or acting.

The reader is often left wondering just who Nell is: At one moment it appears she is a strong, independent businesswoman, mother and wife, but in the next moment her life is unraveling and she is whining about the need for a bubble bath. Also, there are times Hastings seems to introduce certain events unrelated to the story line in an effort to deepen the plot, but they only confuse the reader.

This lack of depth, however, isn’t necessary to enjoyment of the freshness of a nursery setting, the challenges Nell faces in running both a business and a family, and the quirky murder mystery itself. “I just combined all my different interests,” said Hastings, “and hope everyone gets a chuckle.”

The book is a fun, quick read, and would make a good late-summer selection.