Helpful Score: 2
A young American (Victoria) and a young Englishman (Guy) fall in love and get married in the very beginning of this tale of crime and passion. Guy inherits his family's estates and properties. They move to a house on Trelise, an island off Cornwall. Guy's ancestor, Joshua Jones, purchased Trelise in the 1840s. He was a famous medicinal herbalist and he turned the island into one large garden, which is described in detail superbly. When some buried bones are discovered, Guy tells Victoria they must be from some long-ago monk. Victoria disagrees and begins to research the history of Trelise, consulting letters, invoices, diaries and other documents stored in the house. With a clever blending of past and present, Victoria soon discovers the secrets and crimes of the past and how they will come into play in the present.
Helpful Score: 1
I absolutely loved this book and it is one of the rare books that I gave a 5 star rating to! Very well crafted, this is a real page turner! If you are a gardener, you will be entranced with the descriptions of the gardens, but if you don't garden, the descriptions won't detract from your enjoyment. There are a lot of twists and turns in this book, and you are kept guessing right up until the end -- just the way it should be! This is a thumping good read!