"The Savage Garden"

Although"The Savage Garden" is good and just as complex a novel as his others, my favorite Mark Mills novel has to be "House of the Hunted" followed by "Amagansett."  Mills novels are not series so each stands on its own and they don't need to be read in any particular order to make sense.

In "The Savage Garden" Adam Strickland, a Cambridge scholar, is asked by his professor to take on a special summer project.  He wants him to visit the famous Docci garden in Tuscany and write a paper about it.  His professor says he'll arrange a place for him to stay and Adam departs with his father's camera but without his father's blessing.  Adam's brother joins him for part of the summer and their time together reveals some family secrets.  Secrets seem to be the keyword for the summer because Adam also uncovers two murders from the past which may or may not endear him to the family he is visiting.  Will he be able to decipher the clues in the garden and on the family estate to help solve the murders?  Romance is also in the air but can it last when family secrets are uncovered?  Will Adam stay the carefree lackadaisacal student he was before the summer who was planning to follow in his father's footsteps (even though that's not the career path he would have chosen for himself)?  Mills is an excellent writer who weaves complex plots with surprises along the way...pazt