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Savage Garden (Paperback)

by Mark Mills (Author) "He was known, primarily, for his marrows ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Berkley (TRD); Reprint edition (May 6 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425221296
ISBN-13: 978-0425221297
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.7 x 2.5 cm
Shipping Weight: 295 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #139,846 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Two murders committed 400 years apart form the core of British author Mills's outstanding second novel (after Amagansett, which won a CWA Dagger Award). In 1958, Cambridge undergraduate Adam Strickland, who's studying a curious Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, is equally intrigued by both the garden of the Villa Docci estate and its elderly owner, Signora Francesca Docci. Built by the villa's first owner, Federico Docci, in 1577, the garden was intended as a memorial to his wife, Flora, who died when she was only 25. In the course of his research, Adam begins to sense that events, both past and present, are not as clear-cut as they appear. In particular, he discovers that there are several versions of the death of Signora Docci's oldest son, Emilio, who was shot by the villa's German occupiers at the end of WWII. Adam is hailed by all when he comes up with a novel theory explaining Flora's death in 1548, but when he begins to speculate on Emilio's demise, he finds himself in serious danger. This engrossing literary novel, like Amagansett, deserves to be a bestseller. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

In 1958, while studying in the Tuscan Renaissance garden of the enigmatic Signora Francesca Docci, graduate student Adam Strickland uncovers two murders committed four hundred years apart, the sudden death of 25-year-old Flora Docci in the sixteenth century and the death of Signora Docci's son, Emilio, during WWII. Ian Stuart's voice is intriguing as the garden's 70-year-old owner, Francesca; her charm and breeding are evident in his every syllable. As the secrets of the garden and the Docci family unfold, Stuart's Adam evolves from naïf to survivor. Layers within layers, puzzles wrapped around enigmas, elegant writing in lush, luxurious abundance, and Ian Stuart's exceptional performance make Mills's second novel a must-listen for those who like their mysteries enveloped in literary panache. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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He was known, primarily, for his marrows. Read the first page

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4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Oct 11 2007

By	David Dulley "dee" (1) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savage Garden (Hardcover)

About three years ago, British author Mark Mills debuted with "Amagansett", a critically acclaimed murder mystery set in post-World War II Long Island, notable in the off-the-beaten track setting and period and in Mill's slick and sophisticated prose. But where "Amagansett" meandered sometimes aimlessly across Hampton's dunes, Mills' second effort, "The Savage Garden", is as lively and raucous a page-turner as the Tuscan hills where his story takes place.

Adam Strickland is a young Cambridge student in the decade or so following World War II; a brilliant but borderline slacker. For his thesis, his professor suggests travel to Italy to research the Renaissance gardens of the Villa Docci. Drawn more to the promised pleasures of Tuscany's seductive hills than the academic allure of a rather pedestrian Florentine garden, Adam gladly accepts the challenge. Traveling from Florence to the surrounding hillsides, Adam meets the aging and elegant matriarch Signora Docci and begins his scholarly research on the villa's garden, supposedly a memorial to "Flora" - the wife of it's 15th century owner. But it is soon apparent that there is more to the garden - and to the families who've occupied the villa for centuries - than Renaissance architecture and medieval history. Intrigue and mystery seem to lurk behind every statue and behind the villa's locked doors, revealing sinister parallel events spanning the hundreds of years between Flora's untimely death and the murder of Signora Docci's son by the Nazi's who occupied the villa during the WWII.

Simply put, "The Savage Garden" has all the elements making a great novel. The premise is clever, intelligent, and understated, delivered by a cast of well-drawn and likable characters who are cast in credible situations while reacting believably. The story line throws in enough history and culture to keep it interesting, while not bogging down in unnecessary historical minutia. But most of all, "The Savage Garden" is at its core a good old fashioned Gothic mystery that will bring back memories of "The DaVinci Code" and Matthew Pearl's "The Dante Club", while deftly sidestepping the "Hollywood" of the former and tedium of the latter. Make no mistake about it - Mark Mills is a writer with serious chops - a writer that in two outings has shown depth and versatility and an uncanny ability to educate while entertaining. I'm looking forward to number three, but hoping the wait is less than three years. Another title that I just can't help talking about is 'Across the High Lonesome' by James McNay Brumfield; I picked up this book when I saw that Larry McMurtry, the author of my all time favorite book 'Lonesome Dove,' gave it high marks.

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4.0 out of 5 stars "What they did in a moment, we live with forever.", Jun 30 2007

By	Michael Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Savage Garden (Hardcover)

Weaving Greek sculpture, renaissance literature, and even the horrors of the Second World War, Mark Mills' seductive tale centers on the strange doings of a mysterious Villa high in the hills of Tuscany. In search of a subject for his thesis, Cambridge student Adam Strickland is given a unique opportunity to spend the summer in Tuscany, ostensibly to study a 16th-century memorial garden belonging to the Docci family.

Naturally curious, Adam jumps at the opportunity, confident that wiling away a lazy summer in Italy will not only revitalize his soul, but also help him get over the effects of unceremoniously being dumped by his ex-girlfriend. Adam, however, isn't quite prepared for what he finds when he arrives at the Docci Villa. The garden surrounding the villa is in fact a complex warren of groves and grottoes and was conceived and laid out by a grieving husband to the memory of his dead wife.

Fed by a spring that runs just below the Villa Docci, this plunging patch of woodland is modeled on Roman gardens of the period, with meandering pathways, and rills, with inscriptions and neoclassical structures and statues, along with a temple and a pool, and even a nine-tiered amphitheatre crowned by a statue of a beautiful woman named "Fiore." It's almost as though the garden is representing the coming together of art and nature to create a whole new entity.

Adam also admires the Villa Docci itself, there's an air of austerity and artless candor about the building, and a robust, almost fortress like quality. In almost no time at all, Adam falls under Villa Docci's spell; and he can't actually say why the garden affects him so much, all he can point to is a vague sensation of having been momentarily transported somewhere else, a parallel world, unquestionably beautiful, but also strangely disquieting.

But Adam can't quite escape the feeling that there is something not quite right about this place. As the restless whispers echo at the back of his mind, a local man by the name of Fausto and also Signora Fanelli, the beautiful and seductive manager of the local pensione warn him of the dangers of getting to close to the Villa telling him to "be careful up at there at the Villa Docci, it's a bad place, and people have a tendency to die there."

Meanwhile, the aging Signora Docci lies alone in her bedroom at Villa Docci, instructing Adam that's he's free to come and go and his leisure, and is more than welcome to work out of the study if he wants to, and of course the library is also at his disposal. In fact, he is to have free run of the Villa, everything except the top floor, which is totally off-limits.

The garden steadily begins to transport Adam with its unsettling pull that somehow reeks of ancient gatherings and happenings, and it is here that he meets the lovely Antonella, Signora Docci's granddaughter who beguiles him with her understated beauty and tells him much about the origins of the mysterious garden, created by the devastated Frederico Docci in loving memory of his wife of Flora Bonfadio who was only twenty-five years old when she died in 1548.But why had Flora's husband waited almost thirty years - till the very end of his life - to lay out a garden to her memory? And what is the significance of the triumphal arch on which Flora's name is carved in its Italian form?

Adams questions about the garden however, do little to take the edge off Adam's need to know more about the Docci family's recent history. Apparently, Signora Docci's husband Benedetto had died some years before, and her eldest son Emilio was also dead, killed towards the end of the war by the Germans who had occupied the villa.

Devastated at the death of Emilio, Benedetto closed up the top floor exactly how the Germans had left it, sealing it off and locking it up forever. But Adam continues to wonder why this family chose to live with this painful memory, rather than allowing it to dissipate over the years. And as the purpose of the garden with all of its encryptions set in symbols and metaphors and allegory gradually comes to life, Adam must also contend with a family that has never really recovered from the death of their beloved eldest son.

The literary clues proliferate, the serpentine plot races along, and Adam is confronted with a grim catalogue of intrigues, deceits and unusual deaths that stretch throughout history as though the Villa Docci is intent to attract ill luck to itself. This is the serious business of murder as the web the Docci family spins gradually comes into focus. Throughout the course of the story, Adam seems to experience his own renaissance; and he's also willing to take on the Docci family.

Beautifully delivered with some wonderful descriptions of the Tuscan landscape, Mills has written a fascinating literary thriller that gets right to the heart of one family's search for revenge and redemption. Mike Leonard July 07.

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