The Gardener of Eden

by David Downie

A haunting and luminous novel that explores the dark secrets lurking beneath the stunning natural beauty of a dying timber town.

A mysterious beachcomber appears one day on the coastal bluffs near Carverville, whose best days are long behind it. Who is he, and why has he returned after nearly forty years?

Carverville’s prodigal son, James, serendipitously finds work at the Eden Seaside Resort Cottages, a gentrified motel, but soon finds his homecoming taking a sinister turn when he and a local teenager make a gruesome discovery, which force him to reckon with the ghosts of his past—and the dangers of the present. Rumors, distrust, and conspiracies spread among the townsfolk, all of them seemingly trapped in their claustrophobic and isolated world. But is there something even more sinister at work than mere fear of outsiders?

In The Gardener of Eden, David Downie weaves an intricate and compelling narrative of redemption, revenge, justice, and love—and the price of secrecy, as a community grapples with its tortured past and frightening future.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2019

About the author

Bestselling author of novels (crime, thrillers) and over a dozen nonfiction books, has divided his time between France, Italy and California since 1986. A former journalist and guide. Creator of the Commissioner Daria Vinci series; the first Daria Vinci Investigation is Red Riviera (June 2021), the second Daria Vinci Investigation is Roman Roulette (summer 2022). www. davidddownie.com

Reviews

[Thebooktrail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visit the locations in the novel

The coastal bluffs near the small town of Carverville prove to be a very memorable location in this novel. It’s a dying timber town where even darker things happen.

A fictional place but a forgotten timber town which is based on several in the California landscape in and around the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It’s a town which sounds bleak and raw. The weather and landscape match the events of the story. A man’s return to a changed landscape.

A tale of a cloistered old timber town with more secrets to share than you can shake a stick at…if you excuse the tree pun. There’s lots to like here and least of all the descriptions of the sad, faded old town that is Carverville. The name and town are fictional but based on so many timber towns in and along the coast of California.

Stories of one man returning to his washed up town after forty years away are going to be interesting. Particularly when he sees that the place has rotted away into something very different to what he left. In every sense of the word.

A discovery makes him questions everything and the fact that this is not a town which welcomes outsiders, even ones who lived here and then left. Particularly not them.

There’s not so much I can say without hinting at plot and how things turn out but this was an experience where I was cloistered in that small town mindset , the madness and the growing sense of doom.

[J.D. Grimm · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Will Re-Review after Release* First off, I'd like to say that I take every negative review I write, seriously. While I usually like to fill my reviews with humor and fun, I don't want to belittle the author's efforts with my self-indulgent humor.

So for now.... just know that it needs work. I'm going to focus on the opening chapter as this sets the mood for the entire novel and for many a reader, may be the stopping point. David's style does not change through out the entire book, so when it's released next year, I'll go into depth about the story and who I recommend it to. As of now, I am accepting that it is in it's early stages.

So... Where to begin...



I really wanted to like this book, it was one of the few on my list of ARC titles that I was looking forward to starting, however, the first look is a mess. I won’t berate the author or dismiss the book as a flop because it’s release is the beginning of next year, but it needs some of work. *Sigh* Let’s jump right in.



From the summary, the reader is led to believe that there is a “mysterious” beachcomber that arrives in Carverville. Well… there is nothing mysterious about him in the first chapter, I was more distracted by the awful description of the Sheriff’s deputy then I was with the Beachcomber. When I say; “awful description” I’m not just talking about how he is a power-hungry bully, I’m talking about the whole description in general, his appearance, his reactions, the way he communicates, everything is wrong.

Immediately, I noticed a complete lack of research when it came to uniform, procedure, and communication which was so poor that it made the chapter almost unreadable…. And this is the chapter that’s supposed to hook the reader in, so as you can imagine this is a huge issue. I’ll go into further detail for the author’s benefit.

First, no police officer would ever wear a helmet when driving an enclosed vehicle… Well, that’s a simple edit, instead of an SUV lets give him a motorcycle. You’d think that’d be the end of it…. But no. Not only is this deputy not wearing the correct equipment, but he also is dangerously skittish, the “mysterious” beachcomber rubs some leaves in his palms and holds them out… by no stretch of the imagination is this a hostile gesture… and the deputy steps back and unsnaps his holster? O.O I must have missed something, or the author’s message was just poorly described. I reread that paragraph multiple times, and...





Alright, let’s stop here. What makes me qualified to say that these things are wrong? Well, one, I’m a veteran, and I’ve questioned my fair share of drunks and odd passersby. But, I’m also a mystery fan. Whether that be on television or in books, procedures are pretty standard across the board… and well Deputy Tom seems more like a teenage volunteer than a serious law enforcement officer. Anyway.

Then we have this long, convoluted description to dispatch about the man before him and how the deputy is considering “bringing him in”…. *sigh* About a paragraph long description…. Sorry, David, brevity codes exist for a reason, communication with dispatch is short and concise and an officer would never announce his plans to “detain” a suspect in front of that suspect.



The communication would sound more like;
“Middle-aged male, Approximately six foot six, 149lbs…”
Not;
“Unusually tall, educated, wiry, talks funny.”

Next, the unwelcome presence of Beverly… If an officer believed this suspect was worth detaining, or even questioning, the would never endanger the safety of a civilian by allowing her to distract him from his investigation, let alone touch the suspects' things…. Well, since Beverly just names the Beachcomber “Mysterious Jim” it kind of throws a wrench into the stories “mysterious” description.

The officer was inept, and the civilian just named him mysterious, not exactly an exciting thriller. I was more focused on the inaccuracies of the officer even to consider James mysterious and don’t get me started on the unrealistic bullethole size and why wine corks would never plug them…. *sigh* The only reason this book gets two stars is the physical description of the characters is incredible, I can see the talent that has earned David his reputation. I just really hope that the story is edited and updated by its release... because if it's not...

[Jypsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Gardener of Eden presents a small secretive town and a man's return after 40 years absent. It's an engaging and kind of creepy story that will hold your interest. A good read overall.

[Joanne Tinkler (Mamajomakes) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When James pulls his slightly battered RV into a motel car park in his hometown, he doesn’t particularly know why he’s come back. It’s not like he has many heartwarming memories of the place or that he’s kept in touch with old friends and family since he left to go to college many years earlier. Whilst there he meets Beverley, the motel owner, and Taz, a teenage boy who visits Beverley daily and helps out around the motel. These three characters strike up an unlikely friendship but when a body washes up on the beach next to the motel, a chain of events unfold that puts James in a deadly position.

This is a very slow burner and I very nearly didn’t finish it as I couldn’t see how it was going to get anywhere. Once the story started moving it was very readable but a bit predictable though that didn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable.

Many thanks to Pegasus Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Jamie Brackell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set a few years ahead in the future, one where Trump’s legacy is the widespread adoption of his populist views and attitudes towards immigration, “The Gardener of Eden” is a haunting thriller that uses small-town mid-western America as a backdrop for a tense, yet surprisingly emotional, story of a prodigal son returning to his hometown to search for the girl he left behind. David Downie’s writing is absolutely spell-binding and while it can be a bit complex and hard to penetrate at first, it becomes easier as the novel progresses and the story begins to unfold. One area where he particularly excels is in his dialogue, with the character Beverley standing out in particular, as she constantly chats and makes pop culture references in what reads like a stream of consciousness. Downie is able to convey her character to the reader almost immediately, using her dialogue to showcase her personality effectively – especially contrasted against the cautiously quiet James.

Initially, the novel revolves around the mystery surrounding James as he returns to his hometown, stirring up animosity from the law enforcement and raising concerns as to his true motives. Downie drops various hints and clues, alluding to James’ childhood experiences in Carverville and how they influence his decisions in the present. Midway through the novel, an event occurs that switches the perspective and the story becomes more of a murder mystery with a touch of conspiracy. Without giving too much away, the story feels reminiscent of The Wicker Man at times, evoking that same sense of unease and distrust of small, remote communities and their attitudes towards outsiders. Downie uses modern technology, such as remote-controlled drones and CCTV, to create a sense of paranoia and fear that is equally applicable to our daily lives.

“The Gardener of Eden” is a curious hybrid of genres, blending a nostalgia-driven homecoming with a dark, politically-driven small-town conspiracy. The two styles work well together and result in an engaging novel that is rich with atmosphere. It is a tough read, initially, but one that rewards persistence as the various jigsaw pieces begin to connect and form a bigger picture. The slow, lackadaisical pace of the initial chapters may frustrate some as the novel relies more on gradually unveiling its characters and revealing the relationships between them. However, once the novel begins in earnest, it becomes extremely readable and the tension is palpable on the page once the threat of danger is uncovered.

Despite my unfamiliarity with America’s Midwest, I still managed to get a real sense of location about Carverville and its small-town personality. A shadow of its former self, and eager to believe “America First” rhetoric, the xenophobic attitude of its law enforcement is scarily believable and while Downie takes some aspects to the extreme, the novel feels cautionary at times – a haunting premonition of where populism and narrow-minded attitudes might lead us. That feeling of being a stranger in a strange land is an effective horror technique, whether it is stumbling upon rednecks in the woods a la Deliverance, or the pagan rituals of rural England as in The Wicker Man, it creates a real sense of unease that I enjoy reading, and Downie really captures that tone in his writing. Towards the end of the novel, things feel claustrophobic and our heroes appear fenced in and unable to escape the “long arm of the law” – it is a terrifying concept, and one that lingers in the mind long after the book has finished.

Beautifully written, “The Gardener of Eden” evokes a real sense of time and place with its ominous warning of things to come. Carefully balanced, the novel is the ideal mix of socio-political commentary and human drama, subtly showcasing the aftermath of a Trump presidency without resulting to fire and brimstone. These are the human consequences of “putting up a wall”, and Downie never loses focus of the individual. A fantastic read, “The Gardener of Eden” is a literary triumph that deserves widespread attention, both as a piece of fantastic writing and as a warning to the inhumanities of the populist movement.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this novel down until I finished! The characters were so real and the descriptions so vivid that I felt like I was actually in the story, a helpless bystander, my spine tingling as I waited for the next unexpected turn of events. The mix of socio-political commentary, suspense and sentiment makes this a uniquely appealing novel. It was horrific in its own way, without relying on the spilling of blood and guts. Very chilling, in fact, especially because similar events could easily be taking place right now. Bravo David Downie! I can already see the movie...

[Janet Hulstrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compelling, entertaining, and occasionally nail-bitingly exciting work of literary suspense.

I have admired David Downie’s work for some time: he is an intelligent, graceful writer capable of doing with words almost anything you need them to do: his work is always very interesting and is energized by a passionate undercurrent, whether overtly expressed or subtly and elegantly woven into the story. In Gardener of Eden he is at the top of his game: word has it that he is working on his next novel. I can hardly wait to read it.

[Patricia Romero · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this one. There were a lot of easily researched errors and a lot of long and convoluted conversations! Comma, after comma and so on. I think the one character spoke a full sentence that took up an entire page and by that time I didn't care about any of them.

The mysterious man isn't at all mysterious and by the end of the book I was just angry I had wasted hours on reading it. There really was no garden or Eden. He just trimmed a few bushes for the long winded lady at the motel. Very disappointing.

Would I recommend it? No.

Netgalley/ March 5th 2019 by Pegasus Books

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, convoluted plot ends with all the raveled ends tied well. Well narrated by George Newbern. Main character is atheist but novel is not anti Christian

[John Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars – exceptional.

(This review first appeared on my blog, PartTimeParisian.com)

If you squint just a bit when you look toward the future, you can see the dystopian world David Downie conjures in The Gardener of Eden, his second novel and umpteenth book, counting his food work and his immersive deconstructions of Paris and the French.

A small town on the northern California coast, struggling to stay afloat economically after the “Downburst” of the twenty-teens, a recession on steroids far worse than 2008. Its effects were mitigated by deflation and devaluation of the dollar, and Canada and Mexico have become prohibitively expensive but remain goals for refugees from the new and unpleasant American political system, where many books “were now officially ‘un-recommended…’”

The troubles that drove JP Adams from the upper reaches of the legal establishment to an RV in the parking lot next to an old motel, now reinvented as a resort, are the backdrop to the story. JP and his parents lived in the Eden forty years before, when his father was starting a new job running the fish hatchery, so that’s where JP chose to land first, but the town isn’t what it was when he went East to college.

As he takes his daily walk on the beach below the bluff, a tree falls on the roof of his RV. The sheriff’s surveillance camera sees it, and a suspicious and hostile deputy appears before JP returns. It foreshadows what is to come, and gives us a first look at the pervasive surveillance he will find.

Anyone who has lived in a small town may have seen Carverville, Downie’s fictional Cannery Row, which is now an economic desert whose salmon fishery and lumber industries were sacrificed to clearcutting and environmental plunder. The cannery is now a mini-mall.

The strutting, obese sheriff is obsessed with keeping the town cleansed of drug addicts, marijuana growers and itinerants of all sorts. His fixation almost gets JP in serious trouble until the sheriff learns they were high school classmates, but that history only brings trouble of a different kind, rooted in memories that seemed important in high school but should have faded into distant memory long ago.

The characters sparkle. JP, the establishment lawyer besieged by the new crypto-fascist government and driven out of his career; Maggie, the high-school girlfriend he came back to find, not knowing if she were still there but not realizing, either, that he was looking for her until he could think of nothing else; and the memorable Beverly, the Sherlock Holmes fan and talented cook running the Eden Resort, which she and the last of her three husbands bought. During the forty years between their times, dark things went on at the Eden.

On the surface, Carverville was much like Joe Arpaio’s Arizona, including the immigrant inmates forced to wear pink underwear. But it was the Eden, its crumbling old pier on the Pacific, the pile of rusting cages on its lawn, and its menacing feral hogs that bring the true horror of Carverville into focus.

Northern California is Downie’s native land, although he now lives in Paris with his wife, the eminent photographer Alison Harris, and writes with equal facility about the food, wine and history of France and Italy, where he also lived.

The Gardener of Eden
Pegasus Books Ltd., New York, March 5, 2019 . Available for pre-order. (I received an ARC from the publisher.)

Posted Feb 9, 2019

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not what I was expecting! Lots of twists that I didn’t see coming made this book very entertaining.

[Berry Muhl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a disappointment. I picked up the book because I found the title intriguing, but the story is decidedly less so.

I guess I can come to expect political writers to make villains out of those on the other side of the ideological fence. Downie's theme here can be expressed as "greed is never good," a statement made verbatim by one of his characters late in the novel, sans any definition of "greed" (is it wanting more than you have? wanting more than others have? wanting more than you need? or just wanting?...allthese things seem to be a violation of his values).

The bad guys are all "right wing," because of course they are. Irksome, but to be expected these days.

But the real sin here is in not offering a real mystery. There is no process of divination of the underlying crime through the collection and analysis of clues. This is of course what happens when the entirety of the law-enforcement apparatus is on the villain side. Instead, we get a protagonist who already knows what the crime was, already knows who the villains are, and already understands what he must do. He just puts off doing that, for reasons, and we're left with an author who takes all the time he wants to get around to revealing things to us.

[Elatia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What will we be like, at the rate we are going, in 7 more years? Or even a little sooner? The Gardener of Eden is a moving novel that suggests developments in the near future that it will wake you up to ponder. Things you know might happen -- the slippage of our environment -- are set against things you hope will happen, like people bonding despite vast differences in their backgrounds, and acts of valor and deep kindness on the basis of fellow feeling. Oh, yes, there's a central mystery here and a couple of side-hustle mysteries, and even hugely clever mystery fans will be marvelously baffled. For many years, I have with great pleasure read the author's travel essays, memoiric, and culinary works. His sense of place and skills to evoke it are in high form here. It's hard to find a dystopia with some genuinely culinary action -- but here it is! A wonderful novel that will make you scared and make you care. Read it!

[Emily Glimco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not enjoy this book. It took forever to get to any actual drama or intrigue, and when the book finally got exciting, it felt disjointed because the book kept alternating between journal entries and third person perspective. It felt dry and hard to follow, and the dialog was almost unbearable. One character never shuts up; another, a 19 year old, uses "like" more than a normal 19 year old would and uses them in all the wrong places. It was as if the author had never interacted with someone younger than 50. I would have stopped reading this book after the first chapter it if I weren't reading this book for my library's summer reading program.

[Siwakorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a foreign reader who don‘t have English as my primary language, this book is a bit harder to read than any others I‘ve encountered. About the first half is no-going-anywhere storytelling, while the ending is abrupt like you hold a cake and accidentally let it fall off in just a blink. Some character talks, like, about half a page in a single conversation without stopping for the other to reply. Anyway, from my personal view, this book represents some points I can relate to in my life - from some cultural differences to local politics. This part is what makes this book enjoyable for me.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very odd book....
A stranger turns up at a beach town that has seen better days....turns out he's not a stranger as much he is a prodigal son...
A story of lost love, 2nd chances...set in a near future that is depressing and unnecessary to the story. The politics add nothing and distract...
The two story lines make an odd match....
And the political commentary take away from the better story, for me at least...

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man who seems to be fleeing his old life returns to the site of his youth in search of a lost love only to find a town ruled in terror. He finds refuge in a motel run by a woman who befriends him and he helps to put her garden in order with the help of a young man whose love of IT proves useful. His mother turns out to be the lost love and together this group fight the evils that 5he town has been ruled under.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book but I had to take a break in the middle because the book is so creepy. The author owns brilliant use of language and tense plot movement. The characters are so alive and vivid that they feel like real people - they stay with me as if I know them. This book would make an outstanding and frightening movie.

[Al Stoess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange book. Did not care for writing style of author.

Small print.

A mystery? Maybe.

[Tracie Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Janet Brune · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real thriller

This book started slowly but built up to edge of my chair suspense. A very original and well plotted story that was totally unpredictable.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A timely tale,strange and a little twisted.

[Angela Kinnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very strange book. It was like a train wreck that I couldn’t stop reading. Its pages were filled with words that filled your mind with images and your heart compassion.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book about a man revisiting a place where he once had roots and discovering both wonderful new people and old friends and old enemies. I thought it had an interesting plot and a like able leading man who didn’t always have the answers but tried. I was a bit confused about the status of society in the United States that was alluded to but never fully explained. His past history was never fully explained either, but considering the times we are living in now in 2020, during a pandemic, during Trump’s reign of terror, I thought I could envision a Fahrenheit type scenario.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting novel/fictional memoir: predictable at times but a surprising ending.

[Julie]

DNF