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| The Savage Garden | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Mills
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 23031
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0425221296
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780425221297
ASIN: 0425221296
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Young Cambridge scholar Adam Banting is in Tuscany, assigned to write a scholarly monograph about the famous Docci gardena mysterious world of statues, grottoes, meandering rills, and classical inscriptions. As his research deepens, Adam comes to suspect that buried in the gardens strange iconography is the key to uncovering a long-ago murder. But the ancient house holds its own secrets as well. And as Adam delves into his subject, he begins to suspect that he is being used to discover the true meaning of the villas murderous past.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 "The Way Out Is the Way Through" November 4, 2007
36 out of 37 found this review helpful
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.
The joy of losing oneself to the beauty of the Tuscan countryside in the late 1950s... May 30, 2007
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Cambridge University Professor Crispin Leonard has waited a long time to find just the right student for a sensitive task. An old friend, Signora Docci, has asked him to be on the lookout for someone to unravel the symbolism of the grounds surrounding her family villa a short distance from the tiny Tuscan hill town of San Casciano. After careful consideration, Professor Leonard chooses senior Adam Strickland and sends him off on a discovery mission. The centuries-old garden has rested quietly until Adam arrives to study it for his thesis. He immerses himself in the tangle of vegetation, but finds that the manor house intrigues him almost as much as the garden. Adam has heard the stories and knows that something tragic occurred there during the Second World War, some 14 years previous to his arrival, resulting in the third floor of the villa being sealed and declared off limits.
Almost instantly, Villa Docci's matriarch, the elderly Francesca Docci, warms to Adam, eager to hear what insights he unearths. As Adam wanders the garden, more questions than answers arise. The statues seem oddly placed. Even their expressions are a bit off. Adam's research leads him to the belief that this is not the work of a bad landscape architect. Rather, the garden is precisely as designed. But why? And the matter of the closed-off floor of the villa? The explanation Adam has heard involved the death of Signora Docci's eldest son at the hands of occupying German soldiers. A tragedy, yes, but is it reasonable to close off that part of the house forever?
Adam had planned only a few weeks to complete his work in Italy, but he finds himself enchanted by Antonella, Francesca's granddaughter. Then Harry, Adam's rogue brother, announces that he will drop in for a short stay. Although he loves his brother, Adam dreads a visit from Harry, for Harry usually means trouble --- and always means diminishing Adam's funds. But while Harry provides a somewhat pleasant diversion, he also points Adam toward a surprising revelation and lightens the mood around the villa, giving the Doccis an easy excuse to host lavish celebratory dinners. And Antonella provides an even more pleasant diversion.
As for the garden, Adam thinks he understands what its designer's message was. When he turns to the mystery of the house, all the signs point to a horror that he wishes he could forget. Of course, he can't. He continues on the trail of clues, naively oblivious to the dangers he faces. If the death on the third floor was not at the hands of the Germans, as he'd been told, then the murderer may get edgy if Adam comes too close to the truth. When he realizes his room has been rifled and he has picked up a trail, he knows he is on to something. But will he live to find the truth?
While Mark Mills has intertwined history with a marvelous puzzle, that's not the best part about THE SAVAGE GARDEN. The best part is the joy of losing oneself to the beauty of the Tuscan countryside in the late 1950s and relishing a less frenetic era through the eyes of a clever young man. Better yet, the startling conclusion leads to a highly satisfying ending. One always wants justice to be served. Here, it is --- well served.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
A centuries separated murder mystery October 18, 2007
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
Mark Mills created a well conceived novel with a plot that interlaces intrigue, history, literature and mythology in his cerebral offering "The Savage Garden". Set in 1958, primarily in the Tuscan hills outside of Florence, the novel evokes the reality of the beautiful rolling countryside.
Protagonist Adam Strickland is a rather aimless Cambridge University art history student. It was suggested by his celebrated mentoring professor Crispin Leonard that he utilize the garden adjoining the Villa Docci as the basis for his thesis. The Villa was owned by an old acquaintance of the professor Signora Francesca Docci.
Bolting at the opportunity to visit Italy, Stickland was impressed by the High Renaissance architecture of the three storied villa as well as it's aristocratic septagenarian matriarch Signora Docci. Strickland's first encounter with the garden laid out by original owner Federico Docci in 1577 in memory of his young wife Flora who had died almost 30 years earlier was enchanting. The Romanesque garden was located within a spring fed patch of woodland decorated with statues, inscriptions and neo classical architecture.
The Docci family accepted Adam graciously giving him free reign of the estate with the exception of the third floor which had been sealed off. Apparently the Signora's eldest son Emilio had been shot and killed up there by occupying German soldiers. Her husband Benedetto ordered that part of the villa sealed off from that point on.
Gradually Adam after circumnavigating the garden many times and inspired by reading Dante's "The Divine Comedy", began to sense that the layout of the garden offered clues to the fate of Flora Docci who died in mysterious fashion. Spurred on by the Signora's fetching granddaughter Antonella, who he was falling in love with, and his rouguish sculptor brother Harry who arrived at the Villa Docci unexpectedly, Adam unravelled the mystery of Flora's untimely death.
Intrigued by the circumstances of the death of Emilio, Strickland began investigating the events surrounding that murder, being given clues by family members and denizens of nearby town San Casciano. He began to wonder if he was proceeding on his own volition or was he merely a pawn in a scheme to uncover the truth about the Villa Docci's two suspicious deaths.
Mills advances his storyline in seamless, rational fashion never letting us know too much all at once. His interesting mix of history and the arts keeps the plot flowing ending with a fairly unexpected concluding finale and denouement.
"We all think we know the answer, and we're all wrong." May 27, 2007
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
"The Savage Garden," by Mark Mills, is the story of a geographical, spiritual, and psychological journey taken by twenty-two year old art history scholar, Adam Strickland, in 1958. Adam is at loose ends; he is drifting academically and cannot settle on a suitable subject for his thesis. His professor, Crispin Leonard, suggests that Adam take a break from Cambridge and stay in Tuscany for the summer. His assignment will be to write about an extraordinary garden created by a sixteenth century nobleman in memory of his wife, who died at the tender age of twenty-five. The garden is located in Villa Docci, the ancestral estate of Signora Docci, an elderly and enigmatic widow who invites Adam to stay in the villa while he conducts his research.
The "beautiful but also disquieting" garden casts a spell on Adam and he becomes obsessed with it. He comes to suspect that the garden's architect, Federico Docci, laid it out with an ulterior motive, and that the clues to Docci's intentions lay in a careful reading of Dante's "The Divine Comedy." Was Docci's garden truly "the touching tribute of a grieving husband to his deceased wife," or might there be a more sinister interpretation? To learn the truth, Adam delves into Greek mythology, medieval literature, and his knowledge of other Renaissance gardens. Ultimately, he sees the garden from an entirely new perspective and draws some provocative conclusions.
In Italy, Adam meets the luscious Signora Letizia Fanelli, who runs a pensione where Adam stays for a little while. He also comes across an idealistic and charming former partisan named Fausto, who loves to talk about all things military. Fausto warns Adam to be careful at Villa Docci, where mysterious deaths have been known to occur. Adam inevitably falls in love with Signora Docci's lovely granddaughter, Antonella Voli, a fashion designer whose valuable insight helps Adam penetrate the garden's hidden meaning. Before the summer ends, not only does Adam solve the puzzle of the memorial garden, but he also uncovers an even darker secret that will change the lives of the entire Docci family.
Mark Mills has written an evocative novel about personal discovery, the complexity of family relationships, and the delicate interaction between art and nature. There are many pleasures to be found here: a tidy literary and artistic mystery, beautiful descriptive writing, and a touch of psychological suspense. Although the book's conclusion is a bit anticlimactic, there are enough pleasures along the way to make this trip to Tuscany worth taking.
 'He was looking for Eden but instead found a savage garden' October 30, 2007
14 out of 21 found this review helpful
I was looking forward to reading this book because the elements sounded intriguing - a Tuscan villa, a beautiful but mysterious garden, an old woman with secrets, a locked room. However, I couldn't mask my disappointment after reading the last page. It is certainly well written and beautifully descriptive but the mystery is neither intriguing or interesting and half the time I felt like I was reading a Harlequin romance. I could care less for the lead character or his horny brother and the only interesting character in the entire book was the old woman. I did enjoy the garden descriptions but the remainder of the book was a let-down.
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