Mark Mills
BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR
- Title: The Savage Garden
- Description:
A haunting tale of murder, love and innocence lost set in post-war Tuscany from the award winning author of 'The Whaleboat House'. Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own -- and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it. Young scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War Italy is still a strange, even dangerous place, and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away which Adam finds himself compelled to investigate. Before this mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years! but is another tragedy about to be added to the villa's cursed past? From the Publisher Mark Mills's debut `The Whaleboat House' won the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for Best First Crime Novel of the Year. A brilliantly written, atmospheric novel, which will appeal to anyone who loved `The Shadow of the Wind' and `Winter in Madrid'. Chosen for the 2007 Richard & Judy Summer Reads. From the Back Cover Tuscany, 1958behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own - and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read.Young scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family , their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-war Italy is still a strange, even dangerous, place and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away in their past. Before the mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years... but is another tradegy about to be added to the villa's cursed history? About the Author Mark Mills graduated from Cambridge University in 1986. He has lived in both Italy and France, and has written for the screen. His first novel, `The Whaleboat House', won the 2004 Crime Writer's Association for Best Novel by a debut author. He lives in Oxford with his wife and two children. Excerpted from The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. Copyright © 2007. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. (August, 1958) Later, when it was over, he cast his thoughts back to that sun-struck May day in Cambridge - where it had all begun - and asked himself whether he would have done anything differently, knowing what he now did.It was not a question easily answered.He barely recognized himself in the carefree young man cycling along the towpath beside the river, bucking over the ruts, the bottle of wine dancing around in the bike basket.Try as he might, he couldn't penetrate the workings of that stranger's mind, let alone say with any certainty how he would have dealt with the news that murder lay in wait for him, just around the corner.
