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The Man in the Garden
PRELUDE TO NIGHTMARE
Even if the man was out there in the garden, even if the phone wires were cut, still she was safe. He couldn't get into the house. All the doors and windows were locked - and Heidi had the only key.
She took the hey out of her pocket and looked at it. Suddenly her legs began to tremble, her breath came in gasps.
Darkness was falling, the shadows in the garden were moving, and the key in her hand wasn't the key to the house at all....
Even if the man was out there in the garden, even if the phone wires were cut, still she was safe. He couldn't get into the house. All the doors and windows were locked - and Heidi had the only key.
She took the hey out of her pocket and looked at it. Suddenly her legs began to tremble, her breath came in gasps.
Darkness was falling, the shadows in the garden were moving, and the key in her hand wasn't the key to the house at all....
- GenresGothic
151 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2026
**SPOILERS**
For most of its length, "The Man in the Garden" is a sharp, unsettling piece of domestic suspense (NOT gothic romantic suspense. Don't let that cover fool you). Heidi and Mrs. Renner form a compelling dual portrait of mid‑century womanhood: shrewd, perceptive, and constantly dismissed. For a while, the novel is genuinely brilliant about the ways misogyny frames women, setting them up to look like hysterics and fools, constantly dismissed by the men around them. Through them, Paule Mason highlights how women see danger first, how men refuse to listen, and how even strong and capable women can be gaslit into ignoring their own sense of danger and boundaries in order to please their partners.
It’s extremely frustrating to watch Heidi, who spends much of the book as practical and brave, endure constant insults from her “boyfriend,” ignoring both her intuition and all those blazing red flags. And when the danger finally becomes undeniable, the book simply discards her. She realizes the man she liked is a predator, is assaulted, then hit over the head and shoved into a back room, never to matter again. The protagonist who carried the story is removed from her own narrative at the exact moment she should have been allowed to act!
Adding to the frustration, the book meticulously sets up Nicky’s slingshot and the marbles he carries in his pocket (aka proper foreshadowing) but never once mentions the empty pool that suddenly becomes the centerpiece of the climax. It appears out of nowhere, complete with a tossed‑off line about how it takes eighteen hours to fill, as if that retroactively justifies its existence. The pool isn’t part of the house’s geography or atmosphere the way the oak tree is; it’s a prop wheeled in at the last second so the final confrontation can happen in a space Heidi has never even mentioned before and has no relationship to.
So, rather than concluding as a story about women persisting under misogyny, the book pivots into a sentimental tale about the bond between a mother and her child, and the climactic moment is given to Mrs. Renner's 5-year-old son with no help from Heidi at all. It's a total switcheroo, and deeply insulting to poor Heidi, who carried most of the story’s weight. Suddenly, the book that spent so much time dissecting how women are ignored ends by ignoring its own heroine, enacting the very misogyny it spent so much time critiquing.
Still worth reading for the first 3/4 of the book and the dread-drenched atmosphere, but that ending feels like a door closing unceremoniously on the woman who should have been allowed to walk through it.
For most of its length, "The Man in the Garden" is a sharp, unsettling piece of domestic suspense (NOT gothic romantic suspense. Don't let that cover fool you). Heidi and Mrs. Renner form a compelling dual portrait of mid‑century womanhood: shrewd, perceptive, and constantly dismissed. For a while, the novel is genuinely brilliant about the ways misogyny frames women, setting them up to look like hysterics and fools, constantly dismissed by the men around them. Through them, Paule Mason highlights how women see danger first, how men refuse to listen, and how even strong and capable women can be gaslit into ignoring their own sense of danger and boundaries in order to please their partners.
It’s extremely frustrating to watch Heidi, who spends much of the book as practical and brave, endure constant insults from her “boyfriend,” ignoring both her intuition and all those blazing red flags. And when the danger finally becomes undeniable, the book simply discards her. She realizes the man she liked is a predator, is assaulted, then hit over the head and shoved into a back room, never to matter again. The protagonist who carried the story is removed from her own narrative at the exact moment she should have been allowed to act!
Adding to the frustration, the book meticulously sets up Nicky’s slingshot and the marbles he carries in his pocket (aka proper foreshadowing) but never once mentions the empty pool that suddenly becomes the centerpiece of the climax. It appears out of nowhere, complete with a tossed‑off line about how it takes eighteen hours to fill, as if that retroactively justifies its existence. The pool isn’t part of the house’s geography or atmosphere the way the oak tree is; it’s a prop wheeled in at the last second so the final confrontation can happen in a space Heidi has never even mentioned before and has no relationship to.
So, rather than concluding as a story about women persisting under misogyny, the book pivots into a sentimental tale about the bond between a mother and her child, and the climactic moment is given to Mrs. Renner's 5-year-old son with no help from Heidi at all. It's a total switcheroo, and deeply insulting to poor Heidi, who carried most of the story’s weight. Suddenly, the book that spent so much time dissecting how women are ignored ends by ignoring its own heroine, enacting the very misogyny it spent so much time critiquing.
Still worth reading for the first 3/4 of the book and the dread-drenched atmosphere, but that ending feels like a door closing unceremoniously on the woman who should have been allowed to walk through it.
November 7, 2025
An au pair is menaced by a stalker when her employers leave her to care for three children while they are away. This is a short book with a very simple plot, but it's competently written, although I did not like the abrupt slide into sexual assault that happens towards the end. However I thought the actual resolution that came after that was quite satisfying, if rather improbable.
October 3, 2023
Don't bother. Gaslighting is basically defined in this horrible book. Women and children are menaced. Not even scary fun.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews