The Serpent in the Garden: A Novel

by JanetGleeson (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $22.07

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.29

  Summer, 1765. The renowned portrait painter Joshua Pope is eager to escape London and his unhappy past and accepts a commission to paint a wedding portrait for Herbert Bentnick and his bride-to-be, Sabine Mercier. Joshua learns that the couple are avid horticulturalists. Bentnick's country house, Astley, in Richmond, is famous for its verdant gardens, designed by the master landscape artist Capability Brown. Sabine Mercier, who has lived most of her life in the Indies, is an expert in growing pineapples, the fruit of choice at the grandest dinner parties and an inspiration to artists and craftsmen. But soon after Sabine begins to cultivate pineapples in the vast conservatory at Astley, she discovers a body among her plants. Why, wonders Joshua Pope, is so little attention paid to this bizarre death? Why do Bentnick's children regard their future stepmother with suspicion and fear? And what connection does Sabine's daughter Violet have with the dead man? Outraged that any life can be valued so lightly, Joshua begins to investigate the death. But then Sabine's valuable emerald necklace disappears, and he is implicated. His need to discover what has happened at Astley suddenly becomes more pressing. Can Joshua solve the mystery before his reputation is ruined? And, more immediately, can he stay alive long enough to do so? Following her acclaimed debut, THE GRENADILLO BOX, Janet Gleeson has written another compelling tale of murder and mystery set in an exquisitely and authentically rendered Georgian England.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $7.37

  Joshua Pope, Esquire, a painter of portraits of certain reknown is interrupted late one night by an unexpected visitor. She has a challenge for him, but not an artistic one. He was once a witness to a series of events - beginning and ending in murder - the mystery of which has never been solved. His enigmatic visitor believes that, unbeknownst to him, Joshua holds the key that will finally unlock the truth. Twenty years previously, he had painted a wedding portrait, that of the widowed landowner Herbert Bentnick and his new bride, Elinor Mercier. Soon after his first wife's death Bentnick met Miss Mercier in the West Indies. His impressive manor house and gardens, Astley House in Richmond, were testament to his abiding enthusiasm for all matters horticultural, and it was for this reason that he was now in the Indies. Indeed it was matters horticultural that had brought the two lovers together. Miss Mercier was expert in the cultivation of pineapples. These curious fruits had just begun to appear in Georgian England and the country has gone wild for this new extravagant delicacy. Pineapples were the height of fashion, served at only the most refined dinner parties and providing inspiration for painters and architects across the country. To bring back some palms and grow them successfully in England would be the greatest coup. Their shared love of gardening quickly becomes something more and plans were made for their return to England As preparations for their wedding and for the pinery to house their new collection of palms progressed, everything seemed to be running perfectly. That is until one day a rude intrusion shatters their happiness. A body is discovered in the pinery. The murdered corpse is the first link in a chain of events that will uproot their comfortable lives and dredge up secrets thought safely buried in the past. Can Joshua Pope solve this dormant mystery? And more pressingly, as his investigation progresses, can he stay alive long enough to finally reveal the truth?