The Savage Garden (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "He was known, primarily, for his marrows..." (more)
Key Phrases: gramophone player, savage garden, memorial garden, Signora Docci, Villa Docci, Signora Fanelli (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Two murders committed 400 years apart form the core of British author Mills's outstanding second novel (after Amagansett, which won a CWA Dagger Award). In 1958, Cambridge undergraduate Adam Strickland, who's studying a curious Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, is equally intrigued by both the garden of the Villa Docci estate and its elderly owner, Signora Francesca Docci. Built by the villa's first owner, Federico Docci, in 1577, the garden was intended as a memorial to his wife, Flora, who died when she was only 25. In the course of his research, Adam begins to sense that events, both past and present, are not as clear-cut as they appear. In particular, he discovers that there are several versions of the death of Signora Docci's oldest son, Emilio, who was shot by the villa's German occupiers at the end of WWII. Adam is hailed by all when he comes up with a novel theory explaining Flora's death in 1548, but when he begins to speculate on Emilio's demise, he finds himself in serious danger. This engrossing literary novel, like Amagansett, deserves to be a bestseller. (May)
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From Booklist

Mills' second novel carves out new territory for the British author, whose superb debut, Amagansett (2004), told the story of a Basque fisherman on Long Island. This one, though still set in the post-World War II era, takes place in Tuscany, where Adam Banting, a Cambridge architecture student, is doing research on a famous Renaissance garden. But as he digs into the history and iconography of the garden, he comes to believe that the seemingly tranquil bower offers a road map to how its original owner murdered his wife. Similarly, as Adam learns more about the family who now owns the garden, he follows the trail of a more contemporary murder. This sort of jumping between historical and contemporary crimes has become commonplace, even cliched, in highbrow literary thrillers, but Mills uses the technique effectively, generating tension on both fronts and introducing some dizzying plot machinations. Adam is a bit too callow to hold our attention the way the robust Basque did in Amagansett, but there is plenty here to captivate those who like high culture mixed with high crime (fans of Iain Pears, for example). Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First American Edition edition (May 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399153535
• ISBN-13: 978-0399153532
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #240,250 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Way Out Is the Way Through", November 4, 2007

By	Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The joy of losing oneself to the beauty of the Tuscan countryside in the late 1950s..., May 30, 2007

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

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

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A centuries separated murder mystery, October 18, 2007

By	Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.