Serpent in the Garden [Paperback]

Janet Gleeson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British author Gleeson's tepid second historical mystery follows the same fundamental formula as 2003's The Grenadillo Box: a skilled craftsman (there a cabinetmaker, here a portraitist) is ensconced at the estate of a wealthy British family when a brutal murder occurs. In both cases, the tradesman is charged with finding the culprit. Joshua Pope is commissioned to paint a wedding portrait of Herbert Bentnick and his betrothed, the luminous Sabine Mercier. During the sittings, Sabine insists on wearing an unusual emerald necklace fashioned into the shape of a serpent, even though it's reputed to bring disaster to any who wear it. When a stranger is found dead in the conservatory and the necklace disappears, Joshua, suspected of the theft, is forced to investigate. He stumbles about in a sea of red herrings, eventually uncovering the truth some chapters after many readers have done so. The author's depiction of Georgian England rings true in every lush detail. But the crucial elements that define a mystery - plot, character, passion - never rise above the ordinary. Indeed, the novel puts one in mind of an 18th-century quadrille, full of elaborate turns and repetitious step sequences - beautiful, stately, mannered, but lacking in depth.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Too many historical mysteries read as if the author, having laboriously culled period details from secondary sources, feels obligated to force-feed the findings to his or her audience. Gleeson, on the other hand, is one of a very few history--mystery writers who bring an era to life by utilizing their own deep knowledge of a period's actual artifacts. Author of the popular nonfiction book The Arcanum (1999), about the search for the recipe for porcelain, Gleeson knows her stuff: she worked at Sotheby's in London and wrote on art and antiques for House and Garden for seven years. In her debut mystery, The Grenadillo Box (2003), she centered the story on an apprentice to Thomas Chippendale. This time, Gleeson again highlights the eighteenth century but with a new, equally intriguing hero: fictional London portrait painter Joshua Pope, portrayed as a peer of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. What makes Gleeson an especially exciting writer is the way she couples an engaging whodunit plot (a body is found in the pineapple conservatory of a stately home) with a wealth of fascinating howdunit information. Readers learn, for example, of the craze for pineapples in eighteenth-century England, of the psychological and social skills needed in portrait work, and a great deal, all intriguing, about how to mix paints and apply brushstrokes. Top-notch. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553815245
• ISBN-13: 978-0553815245
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,584,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting, very interesting, May 15, 2005

By 

Lola Blue (small southern town in georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Serpent in the Garden: A Novel (Paperback)

I wont' try to sum up the events of this book as the other reviewers have done, I believe it is not my place to do so. I will simply give my opinion of it and my feelings towards the piece.

It is a very ineresting book, that kept my thoughts occupied for some time. The language is very nice and a murder mystery never hurt anyone, so if you're looking for a book that u want to entice you, I recommend this one among others to set you back in time and live the life of a successful portrait painter looking to solve a mystery.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An historical mystery with a twist, May 27, 2005

By 

K. Huff (Radnor, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Serpent in the Garden: A Novel (Paperback)

The author of The Serpent in the Garden was trained in art, and has worked at Sotheby's in London-so it should come as no surprise that the protagonist of this book is an artist who pays attention to the small details. Although Janet Gleeson does indeed pay attention to detail, she tends to skimp on the plot, especially the mystery itself. However, this is a highly original book, and it was fun to read.

Joshua Pope is a fictional artist living in 18th- century London. Commissioned to paint a wedding portrait of Sir Herbert Bentnick and his bride Sabine Mercier at their estate Astley, Pope immediately encounters a mystery of a singular kind: the death of a man purported to be a Mr. Cobb, in a greenhouse on the estate. Sabine Mercier, originally hailing from Barbados, is an avid cultivator of pineapples, a fruit that was in vogue in the mid-18th century in Europe. The death allegedly was by poison; since poison is thought to be the weapon of choice by women, could Sabine or her daughter Violet be the murderer? Its a tangled, twisted mystery that Joshua gets involved in, especially when no one in the family seems concerned over the death of a stranger on their property.

Coinciding with the death is the mysterious disappearance of a necklace that belongs to Mrs. Mercier- in the curious shape of a serpent, with the head clasping the tail. The serpent, a serpent of temptation, is the subject of a legal dispute which affects everyone in the Mercier/ Bentnick family. What amazed me, in following Pope's investigation, is how he trusts every untrustworthy person in the book, and mistrusts everyone who he should trust. For someone who claims to be an observer of human character, this feature of the book seemed out of character.

If you have read other reviews I have written on this site, you'll know that I'm an avid reader of historical fiction, as well as mysteries. While The serpent in the Garden is neither the best historical fiction nor the best mystery I have ever read, it is certainly well crafted. I can't wait to read other novels by Janet Gleeson.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars intriguing Georgian who-done-it, February 15, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Serpent in the Garden: A Novel (Paperback)

In 1766, Herbert Bentnick, a widower of under a year, is betrothed to two time Barbados widow Sabine Mercier. Herbert commissions renowned portrait artist Joshua Pope to paint their wedding picture at his Astley estate. However, Sabine, a horticulturist working with her fiancé's pineapple plants, finds a corpse in the hothouse.

While the engaged couple and his family seem unconcerned that someone was murdered on their estate, a shocked Joshua takes it upon himself to investigate. He assumes the deceased is Barbados attorney John Cobb based on documents the dead man was carrying. Joshua also learns that Herbert's wife was still alive and with him when he met Sabine, but died shortly afterward. Finally, he realizes how knowledgeable Sabine is when it comes to plants. Joshua's sleuthing efforts prove fruitless and he now must prove he did not steal Sabine's valuable emerald necklace while the family points their accusing fingers at him.

As with THE GRENADILLO BOX (different artisan detective - cabinetmaker Nathanial Hopson, but similar theme and era), THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN is an intriguing Georgian who-done-it with the emphasis on the 1760s England. The story line is loaded with historical detail providing the audience a close look at the upper class mostly through the eyes of the moralistic artist. Joshua is a fine protagonist; however the two antagonists will fascinate readers. Is Herbert a besotted fool or a clever killer and even more intriguing is Sabine as Joshua's circumstantial evidence implicates her as the culprit in at least two deaths.

Harriet Klausner