The Savage Garden Harper

REVIEWED BY:

SCORE:

Author: Mark Mills
Publisher: Harper

REVIEW:

22-year old Cambridge student Adam Strickland is intelligent but lazy. When his professor suggests a topic for his thesis, Adam jumps at the chance. Recently dumped by his girlfriend, Adam likes the idea of swanning around Italy for a fortnight, drinking wine and seducing the local girls.

His thesis subject is the garden of a Renaissance villa in Tuscany, and its owner, Signora Docci, is an old friend of Adam’s professor. Arriving in Italy, Adam embarks on a flirtation with his landlady in the village, but soon Villa Docci and its garden draw him closer. His interest in unlocking the coded message of the garden increases when he meets Signora Docci’s beautiful granddaughter, Antonella.

But it’s not just the garden that’s hiding its secrets. The Villa Docci was occupied by German forces during the war, and the eldest son, Emilio, was murdered. Rumour and suspicion have plagued the family ever since, but nothing has been proved – until Adam’s investigations turn from the garden to its owners.

Brilliantly written, this is a book with three intertwined plots: Adam’s study of the garden, his search for the truth of Emilio’s death, and Adam’s relationship with his maverick older brother Harry. Each segment is resolved more or less satisfactorily, but the real genius of this novel is in the description of the garden and the mystery that lies behind it. The key to the puzzle is simple yet complex, and there’s a real sense of pleasure as the reader follows the trail of Adam’s thinking, as the pieces fall into place one by one.

The Savage Garden has many great lines, but my favourite is this description of Adam’s university girlfriend, who’s trying to write a novel about a German spy in rural England:

So this was where two years of English Literature studies had led her, all that Beowulf and Chaucer, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: to a secret submarine base in Portsmouth harbour.

I think that sums up most Arts students’ university experience, actually!

The only things I found questionable were quite minor points. The setting of 1958 didn’t seem real – often the novel read as if it was set in the modern day, with a few throwaway references to the 50s: Elvis, air raid shelters, the Suez crisis. Outside of the Villa Docci and its garden, time wasn’t really anchored.

Also, while the mystery of the garden is solved brilliantly and beautifully (with a fabulous twist), the case against Maurizio and its conclusion is distinctly underpowered and, with hindsight, a little disappointing.

However, while reading this book, I only put it down to eat my dinner. I read the whole thing in a few hours and was totally caught up in it. It’s a novel I’ll definitely read again. Totally absorbing, with fascinating characters, lovely prose and descriptions, romance, lust, mystery and suspense, this is a subtly intelligent read that also serves as popular escapist fiction. Highly recommended.

Daughters of Fire Harper

REVIEWED BY:

SCORE:

Author: Barbara Erskine
Publisher: Harper

REVIEW:

Viv Lloyd Rees, a Celtic historian, has just published a book on the life of a little-known Iron Age queen, Cartimandia of the Brigantes. A contemporary of Boudicca, Cartimandia (’Carta’) welcomed the Roman invaders and through an alliance secured peace and prosperity for her people.

But Viv’s boss at the university, Professor Hugh Graham, disapproves of her book. He dismisses it as sensationalist fiction and threatens her with academic humiliation if she continues her research.

Hugh owns a brooch said to have belonged to Carta. But the brooch is cursed, tying Carta to her aggressive husband, the fiercely anti-Roman Venutios, and to the woman who cursed both the brooch and Carta – Medb of the White Hands.

Much of Viv’s research came to her from Carta as she sees visions of the queen’s life. Carta believes Viv is her own personal goddess, and as her world grows more dangerous, Carta clings to Viv, asking for help and guidance.

Viv is helpless to resist Carta’s increasing strength. She channels the queen’s story into a radio play, but when actress/director Pat is brought in to help her with the play, the evil Medb begins to tell her own story through Pat.

The brooch summons Hugh (the modern channel for Venutios), Viv and Pat to an Iron Age fort for the final showdown. The Celtic gods demand a human sacrifice – but who will fall and who will emerge triumphant?

You always know what you’re getting with a Barbara Erskine novel. The plot is formulaic but why deviate from such a winning formula? Daughters of Fire is much, much better than Erskine’s forays into Ancient Egypt, grounded by the academic tensions vs creative impulses of modern times and the fascinating insights into Iron Age Celtic life.

Viv is a sympathetic heroine whose interest in Carta’s world becomes a mutual relationship of care and responsibility as she takes her role as ‘goddess’ and narrator of Carta’s story more seriously.

Sadly there’s less romance than in Erskine’s previous novels, the spark between Viv and Hugh downplayed in favour of Carta’s different loves, which seem rather perfunctory as the novel progresses. I’d like to have seen more of Carta’s dalliance with sexy Roman tribune Gaius Flavius Cerialis, and her stormy marriage to Venutios didn’t quite ring true to me.

There are a couple of inconsistent characters – Steve, Viv’s graduate student who has a crush on her, and his mother, Peggy, who’s the catalyst to the events of the book’s finale. In my opinion, Ms Erskine didn’t do enough to justify Peggy’s complete transformation, and here the story dips into melodrama.

However, despite these flaws, Daughters of Fire is as gripping, well-researched and evocative as Erskine’s prior novels. It’s wonderful to read about a strong, powerful queen who isn’t Boudicca, and who has a very different response to the Roman invasion of Britain. Toss in some Druidical magick in modern and historic times, larger-than-life characters, a touch of humour and an exploration of humanity and responsibility, and you have a rollicking good read.