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English Garden Mystery #5
Garden of Secrets Past
Can Lawrence Kingston unearth the key to a deadly secret hidden by a mysterious ancient garden inscription in the newest English Garden Mystery?
Codebreakers have tried for centuries to decipher the enigmatic inscription on a strange monument in the garden at Sturminster Hall, but no one has ever succeeded. When a murder occurs on the garden grounds, the intellectual puzzle becomes all too real, and Dr. Lawrence Kingston—retired professor of botany and reluctant sleuth—is called in to investigate.
Other than a scrap of paper bearing a random sequence of letters found on the victim, the police have no meaningful clues. Convinced that the crime must be linked to the seemingly unbreakable centuries-old code, Kingston begins hunting for clues that will help him unmask the murderer's identity as well as the arcane mystery of the monument. But he quickly finds himself swept along in the dangerous undertow of a centuries' old family conflict and a second murder, by poisoning. What could be so valuable, so important to justify such extreme measures and complex codes to keep sacrosanct for over two centuries?
To unlock the garden's dark secret, Kingston must delve into the brilliant minds of three famous men to fathom what part each may have played in masterminding the an Admiral hailed as father of Britain's navy, the author of England's most celebrated poem, and Great Britain's first Prime Minister. But as Kingston's investigation into an England's past leads him closer to a killer in the very dangerous present, his own prospects for survival start to look less and less assured.
Codebreakers have tried for centuries to decipher the enigmatic inscription on a strange monument in the garden at Sturminster Hall, but no one has ever succeeded. When a murder occurs on the garden grounds, the intellectual puzzle becomes all too real, and Dr. Lawrence Kingston—retired professor of botany and reluctant sleuth—is called in to investigate.
Other than a scrap of paper bearing a random sequence of letters found on the victim, the police have no meaningful clues. Convinced that the crime must be linked to the seemingly unbreakable centuries-old code, Kingston begins hunting for clues that will help him unmask the murderer's identity as well as the arcane mystery of the monument. But he quickly finds himself swept along in the dangerous undertow of a centuries' old family conflict and a second murder, by poisoning. What could be so valuable, so important to justify such extreme measures and complex codes to keep sacrosanct for over two centuries?
To unlock the garden's dark secret, Kingston must delve into the brilliant minds of three famous men to fathom what part each may have played in masterminding the an Admiral hailed as father of Britain's navy, the author of England's most celebrated poem, and Great Britain's first Prime Minister. But as Kingston's investigation into an England's past leads him closer to a killer in the very dangerous present, his own prospects for survival start to look less and less assured.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
5 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Eglin
7 books52 followersAuthor of the Arsène Lupin Literary Prize winner THE BLUE ROSE and International Book Awards winner, THE ALCATRAZ ROSE, Anthony Eglin grew up in England and worked in art and advertising before starting The Larkspur Company, which produced a series of best-selling garden videos. Addicted to gardening, his own former pint-sized garden was awarded Garden Design magazine's Golden Trowel Award. Tony is a member of the American Rose Society and lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, Suzie and family cat, Pyewacket.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 22, 2021
This garden mystery series is so well done. Dr. Laurence Kingston is a most erudite and intriguing gardening/rose expert who uses his knowledge in the most unexpected ways solving mysteries. This book has cryptology involved in the mystery; that along with the gardening aspect made for an interesting read.
August 22, 2011
I have been a big fan of Anthony Eglin’s books since reading the first English Garden Mystery, The Blue Rose. He caught me immediately with his protagonist, Lawrence Kingston, who was a learned and avid gardener as well as a bit of a sleuth in the traditional English model. I considered Lawrence Kingston a bit of a garden-digging Hercule Poirot. Sure, he doesn’t get things right all the time and he is often a bit naive about the personal danger he places himself in, but he loves the hunt like a faithful hound who never strays from the scent. Of course, in these books the scent is more likely to be from a beautiful rose or fragrant lily than that of a fox.
In Garden of Secrets Past, Eglin steps up the mystery several notches with the inclusion of even more shady characters, a secret code and a bit of a love interest for, no longer young, Kingston. He also expands our knowledge of Kingston’s relationship with his his friend, Andrew, who looks staged to become a sidekick in the vein of Poirot’s Captain Hastings or Miss Marples various friends and relations that accompany her on her mysteries.
While the gardening information is a bit light in this episode of the English Garden Mystery series, the mystery is top-notch. Sure, the story revolves around a major garden, but we don’t get lessons in Water Lily propagation or the reasons why a blue rose is basically impossible. It mattered little in the end, though, as the mystery pulled me through the book quite quickly. Despite reading it on a vacation in Sicily, between family visits, long meals and excursions, I finished the book in about 4 days. I caught myself, several times, reading long after I should have retired for the night while I looked for that final twist or clue that would make everything clear. To me, this is the best judge of the quality of any book. You should never really want to put it down.
It is good to see the character of Kingston developing a bit of a “history” as the book continue. Where before people took little notice of the gardening academic, now his reputation proceeds him with both police and those he is interviewing and questioning. I like seeing the growth in the character and his reputation, just as I would in a real person.
As I have said in past reviews of Eglin’s books, the combination of gardening with mystery suits me perfectly. I love both and to find a place where they are seamlessly merged is a bit of reading nirvana. I look forward to the next episode in Lawrence Kingston’s career.
I was provided an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher, but the opinions here are expressly my own.
In Garden of Secrets Past, Eglin steps up the mystery several notches with the inclusion of even more shady characters, a secret code and a bit of a love interest for, no longer young, Kingston. He also expands our knowledge of Kingston’s relationship with his his friend, Andrew, who looks staged to become a sidekick in the vein of Poirot’s Captain Hastings or Miss Marples various friends and relations that accompany her on her mysteries.
While the gardening information is a bit light in this episode of the English Garden Mystery series, the mystery is top-notch. Sure, the story revolves around a major garden, but we don’t get lessons in Water Lily propagation or the reasons why a blue rose is basically impossible. It mattered little in the end, though, as the mystery pulled me through the book quite quickly. Despite reading it on a vacation in Sicily, between family visits, long meals and excursions, I finished the book in about 4 days. I caught myself, several times, reading long after I should have retired for the night while I looked for that final twist or clue that would make everything clear. To me, this is the best judge of the quality of any book. You should never really want to put it down.
It is good to see the character of Kingston developing a bit of a “history” as the book continue. Where before people took little notice of the gardening academic, now his reputation proceeds him with both police and those he is interviewing and questioning. I like seeing the growth in the character and his reputation, just as I would in a real person.
As I have said in past reviews of Eglin’s books, the combination of gardening with mystery suits me perfectly. I love both and to find a place where they are seamlessly merged is a bit of reading nirvana. I look forward to the next episode in Lawrence Kingston’s career.
I was provided an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher, but the opinions here are expressly my own.
December 3, 2011
What happens is, I walk past the "Readers' Choice" book selection at the library and I throw a bunch in my bag, and then up reading stuff I'd never choose on my own. Needless to say, I did enjoy this book, which I would describe as a less controversial da Vinci Code/Sherlock Holmes set in the English countryside.
Sometimes I grew weary of the little name-dropping the author throws in, such as Mac, BMW, various and specific wines, etc. etc. It sort of dates the novel and I like a novel which keeps itself somewhat vague in the real time arena. Instead of Mac: laptop? Instead of BMW: really nice, fast car? Instead of Veuve Clicquot: delicious, expensive wine? Things like that. It almost seemed like a branding novel at times.
There were times I was quite enthralled and wanted to skip to the end to find out whodunnit. Aside from the attention to unnecessary details, it was a fun read.
Sometimes I grew weary of the little name-dropping the author throws in, such as Mac, BMW, various and specific wines, etc. etc. It sort of dates the novel and I like a novel which keeps itself somewhat vague in the real time arena. Instead of Mac: laptop? Instead of BMW: really nice, fast car? Instead of Veuve Clicquot: delicious, expensive wine? Things like that. It almost seemed like a branding novel at times.
There were times I was quite enthralled and wanted to skip to the end to find out whodunnit. Aside from the attention to unnecessary details, it was a fun read.
August 3, 2012
This is a pretty awful book. The only reason I kept reading is that it, like the other books in the series, has a connection to English gardens – in this case, the murder scene. However, that is not enough to save it from an implausible plot, an unsatisfying denoument, and an almost transparent protagonist.
December 11, 2011
Anthony Eglin, Anthony Eglin...What an enjoyable yet frustrating series at times. How can I describe and convey my feelings about this book? I truly have enjoyed this book and the series. I love gardens, but I am no gardener by any means. I hate the work in keeping up a garden. However, I truly enjoy gardens and love to be in and experience beautiful gardens.
The doctor/professor of botany in this series, Lawrence Kingston, can wear on you at times. He can be a bit pedantic. That is tempered in this book and he is not as annoying as he was in some of the other books.
This is a complex and interesting mystery. I enjoyed the cryptography focus of this book, even if I didn’t understand it at times and more appropriate, didn’t care enough to try to understand it better. It’s up to the reader how involved he/she may want to be in this. I loved that it was not simple, yet clear enough to get the gist and understand. I just didn’t want to delve deeper or truly understand ciphers.
Kingston also seems to be more social and more considerate of friends and other people in this book than he was in some of the others. This made him a more sympathetic character to me. I don’t know if the sister of a “victim” in this book will truly end up being a friend of a romantic interest. It’s a bit unclear, but handled more sensitively by the author and the character that maybe there is more development to come on this front in the professor’s life.
Rated this a bit higher than I would have if I had read this book on its own. This is an overall rating for the series, I guess. I really enjoyed this overall.
The doctor/professor of botany in this series, Lawrence Kingston, can wear on you at times. He can be a bit pedantic. That is tempered in this book and he is not as annoying as he was in some of the other books.
This is a complex and interesting mystery. I enjoyed the cryptography focus of this book, even if I didn’t understand it at times and more appropriate, didn’t care enough to try to understand it better. It’s up to the reader how involved he/she may want to be in this. I loved that it was not simple, yet clear enough to get the gist and understand. I just didn’t want to delve deeper or truly understand ciphers.
Kingston also seems to be more social and more considerate of friends and other people in this book than he was in some of the others. This made him a more sympathetic character to me. I don’t know if the sister of a “victim” in this book will truly end up being a friend of a romantic interest. It’s a bit unclear, but handled more sensitively by the author and the character that maybe there is more development to come on this front in the professor’s life.
Rated this a bit higher than I would have if I had read this book on its own. This is an overall rating for the series, I guess. I really enjoyed this overall.
May 21, 2014
i enjoyed it mostly because of the English setting and garden descriptions. Suspense not so much.
September 7, 2019
Having read this one, I want to read them all. Unfortunately our library has only #2. And Amazon sells the other at exorbitant prices, like $63.00+! So I'll try interlibrary loan1 But that is how good I thought this one is and #2 which I will review next. I suppose it is popular with gardeners?
Dr. Lawrence Kingston is an appealing amateur sleuth--and who would have guessed there are so many English gardens with mysteries and murders? In addition to learning a lot about gardening, plants, and English gardens, I also learned more about codes, for this mystery deals with a real code (though that is not the one solved, but the garden setting is an alternate for the Shugborough Garden and its mysterious still undecided monument and inscription.
Which makes this all the more a fun read. For a seventy something retired professor of botany, Kingston is not only spry enough to climb up (and down into tunnels) but resourceful enough to engage in some "light" combat. The settings with their various gardens are described well albeit briefly so as not to slow down the action. It would be fun to do a tour of all those mentioned by AE, I think. Perhaps one of those "mystery tour" bus trips that follow Kingston's mysteries?
The other main and secondary characters are realistically created, the villain/s daring and dangerous, and there is also a lot of humor too.
I'm hooked!
Dr. Lawrence Kingston is an appealing amateur sleuth--and who would have guessed there are so many English gardens with mysteries and murders? In addition to learning a lot about gardening, plants, and English gardens, I also learned more about codes, for this mystery deals with a real code (though that is not the one solved, but the garden setting is an alternate for the Shugborough Garden and its mysterious still undecided monument and inscription.
Which makes this all the more a fun read. For a seventy something retired professor of botany, Kingston is not only spry enough to climb up (and down into tunnels) but resourceful enough to engage in some "light" combat. The settings with their various gardens are described well albeit briefly so as not to slow down the action. It would be fun to do a tour of all those mentioned by AE, I think. Perhaps one of those "mystery tour" bus trips that follow Kingston's mysteries?
The other main and secondary characters are realistically created, the villain/s daring and dangerous, and there is also a lot of humor too.
I'm hooked!
November 10, 2023
This book was a mixed bag for me.
Two thirds of it was extremely slow. It just drug, and got really bogged down in unnecessary detail. Slow pace is not good for a mystery. A lot of the characters were, at least for me, really flat. No depth, little personality, just boring. The last few chapters though really picked up, and that made it mostly worth the read, though it took getting through a lot to get there,
Lawrence was, at times, really knowledgeable and interesting, and other times you wondered whether he had a brain at all. It was a very odd mix and made it really strange to read. When his knowledge was on display it made for very entertaining plot elements.
The elements of the mystery, the garden, the codes and the ultimate solution were creative and, for the most part well crafted. It was something you didn't see coming, and that was wonderful.
Overall, a hit and miss for me.
Two thirds of it was extremely slow. It just drug, and got really bogged down in unnecessary detail. Slow pace is not good for a mystery. A lot of the characters were, at least for me, really flat. No depth, little personality, just boring. The last few chapters though really picked up, and that made it mostly worth the read, though it took getting through a lot to get there,
Lawrence was, at times, really knowledgeable and interesting, and other times you wondered whether he had a brain at all. It was a very odd mix and made it really strange to read. When his knowledge was on display it made for very entertaining plot elements.
The elements of the mystery, the garden, the codes and the ultimate solution were creative and, for the most part well crafted. It was something you didn't see coming, and that was wonderful.
Overall, a hit and miss for me.
March 25, 2024
I really enjoyed this one! I wouldn't have picked it out for myself, it was a gift and I'm so glad I read it. I never read books that take place in England and this is the first cozy I've read written by a man with a male main character.
August 6, 2021
Ii like the plot. I like the garden and gardening references. I like the cryptology aspect of the novel.
September 1, 2022
Ah, this will be known as "the week I had covid" book. A decent tale.
January 11, 2023
fun trivia thread in this one about codes
April 16, 2023
Disappointing…not much about gardens; dragging story; cardboard characters; wasted time on cipher.
February 14, 2024
All the characters spoke alike; plodding story and an ending that didn't really work for me (where did that person come from?).
September 22, 2024
Just okay.
August 13, 2016
This is an Old English who done it involving an older gentleman retired botonist/sleuth, his trusted friend and sounding board, a previous acquaintance who had betrayed him, and an irresistible offer to find any information he can to acquit someone arrested for murder in these beautiful gardens. The victim is a man found outside of a monument by a little girl while they were visiting the gardens. This particular building has a history of hidden money to be located at the decoding of an encrypted message on the building. No one has been able to discover the message, or the truth of any money yet to be found. The mystery escorts us through some beautiful London gardens, poetry, a possible romance, history, garden clubs, and the art of decoding. There's a lot of scholarly homework that had been provided that was uncertain would hold the key to the murder and legend of this book. It was hard to put down.
December 23, 2013
I LOVE Old English stories, or stories about Old English places, which is why I gave this an extra star. It's hardcover, with a photo on the cover of the monument in Sturminister, a garden in England. On page 31 Anthony Eglin gives the letters on the monument incorrectly. However, this doesn't matter, as he invents another monument, and a complicated code (and a very believable friend named Andrew) and goes about solving who killed whom and why. Never mind he never solves the first killing, tho he has an abundance of theories. FINALLY, on page 238 things move along at a fast clip until the end. Recent, 2011.
I was intrigued with the actual Sturminister monument, and spent some time trying to solve the 300-year old mystery, never mind possibly Darwin and Dickens couldn't!
I was intrigued with the actual Sturminister monument, and spent some time trying to solve the 300-year old mystery, never mind possibly Darwin and Dickens couldn't!
February 19, 2014
In Eglin’s mystery novel, Lawrence Kingston is determined to solve an unsolved death at a country estate after hearing that a man’s body had been found near a strange monument whose inscription has yet to be deciphered. Once he learns that his old enemy—Lord Francis Morley—will be involved, he is less than pleased. Before long, a local historian is poisoned leaving two murders on the docket, both entwined in Morley’s sinister past. With determination, Lawrence digs on finding secrets multiplying as he moves toward a ruthless killer before he strikes again.
A wonderful addition to the An English Garden Mystery series.
A wonderful addition to the An English Garden Mystery series.
January 25, 2016
After reading a review of this series and author, I ordered this from the library. If you enjoy British mysteries, you will enjoy this. I plan to read more in this series called the English Garden Mysteries. Dr. Kingston is a retired Botany professor and reluctant sleuth. The setting includes various English gardens as well as historic homes. Nice change of pace from the usual fast paced spy/conspiracy novels that I have been reading of late.
February 7, 2017
Wow, this was a crazy one with a killer cryptogram, and even with reading the author's note on it I still don't get it. Ok I get the basics how it works but I wouldn't be able to work one out on my own. Maybe I need to watch Bletchly Circle or whatever that show is called. Coolest part was when the botanist/ sleuth guy made his tea it was Darjeeling, and I was drinking Darjeeling at the time...yeah, I thought that was cool.
June 24, 2013
Overall, I enjoyed this book and the story. I was intrigued and wanted to keep reading to figure out "whodunit." and that's my biggest complaint about the book. There were not enough clues to figure it out. The mystery had to be explained in parts in the last few chapters and was not something a reader could have drawn conclusions to get to.
September 7, 2014
This is the second book I've read by this author and thoroughl enjoyed it.
Lawrence Kingston joins the police again in investigating a murder, which rapidly becomes two murders. The murders are tied to an intriguing 200+ year old local legend of a family feud, missing money, code breaking, and gardening.
Lawrence Kingston joins the police again in investigating a murder, which rapidly becomes two murders. The murders are tied to an intriguing 200+ year old local legend of a family feud, missing money, code breaking, and gardening.
August 27, 2011
This was an ok read, but way more complex than I wanted at the time. Still, I skimmed through the lengthy explanations of the codes and the history, and managed to finish the story.
October 2, 2011
Great Book.... Not only a good mystery but a learning lesson as well regarding gardens and codes etc.. I have loved all of Anthony Eglins books....
November 1, 2011
The mystery was ok. I thought the romance seemed really forced and not natural at all.
March 9, 2012
I kept thinking this book would get more interesting.... but it never did, the main character keeps hitting dead ends in his investigation, and the book just drags on and on.
April 4, 2012
While I have enjoyed other "garden" books, this one drags on and the characters are confusing. Certainly the cypher info is creatively done, just wish the story was wrapped up better.
April 26, 2012
Liked this one much better than the previous book in the series. I really love the soft comic relief of Andrew.
January 24, 2016
Oh, and it was good!! Took me long enough, but at least I finally know where the treasure is hidden!
March 28, 2013
I am not a fan of codes, so lots of this book was skimmed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews