Just Finished Reading: The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

Tuscany in 1958. Final year student Adam Strickland has been recommended by his Professor to study the garden of the Docci family villa just outside Florence. Built 400 years previously during the Renaissance it quickly becomes apparent to Adam that its design is much more than it seems. Slowly he unravels the symbolism to discover a crime hidden for centuries. But there is another more recent event that he has also uncovered. A death of a Docci family member who was apparently killed by the retreating German army less than fifteen years previously – an event still raw and emotionally charged. At the centre of everything is the young and beautiful Antonella. Is she the key to everything or the means of Adams demise? It’s going to be an interesting summer if Adam can survive it.

I actually picked this book up in my local supermarket on impulse. It looked different and interesting so I thought I’d give it a go. It certainly didn’t disappoint. This is only the authors’ second book but shows a very good grasp of character, tension and mystery. The garden theme was used in an intriguing way to both uncover an ancient and a modern mystery simultaneously. The character interactions were pretty flawless even if some of them initially seemed to be stock characters designed purely to move the storyline on or to frustrate the protagonist in his quest. The garden – almost a character in itself – is central to the plot and is wonderfully rendered. If it doesn’t exist (which I suspect it doesn’t) then it should! This was a wonderful read – one of those books that are painful to put down. I read it slowly both to savour the excellent writing and to put off the inevitable ending. Mills will certainly be going on my ‘to read more’ list. I highly recommend it.

Oh, has anyone else noticed how (lately at least) that I appear to be enjoying non-SF a whole lot more than my SF/Fantasy books lately? Maybe, after 34 years, I finally am getting bored with Science Fiction. I do hope not. I have many, many SF books sitting in the ‘pile-o-books’ waiting to be read [laughs].