Editorial Content for Back to the Garden
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Reviewer (text)
In the prologue to Laurie R. King’s BACK TO THE GARDEN, a man in an Army poncho watches as a strange car approaches his homestead on a rainy night. Exiting the vehicle is an individual who resembles a junior partner at a law firm. He’s looking for Rob Gardener, and the man in the poncho responds, “Has the Old Bastard finally died?” This scene from the past kicks off the family saga of the Gardener Estate that is at the heart of this novel, which jumps back and forth in time as secrets are uncovered and revealed.
In present day, Jen Bachus is the manager of the Gardener Estate, a place with a vast and colorful past filled with communal living and now famous artists. She works closely with Mrs. Dalhousie, the Estate’s archivist and conservator, who is mainly there for the sculptures from the artist known as Gaddo. Both Jen and Mrs. Dalhousie are horrified when a human jawbone is uncovered on their property.
"BACK TO THE GARDEN is a pleasant departure for Laurie R. King. It is so nice to see all original characters from her after being addicted to her wonderful Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series."
This immediately begins talk of the famed serial killer who is still incarcerated, The Highwayman, who terrorized the West Coast for years. It is enough to bring out Inspector Raquel Laing to investigate. Raquel has been working the Highwayman case for a while and is desperate to learn if this grisly find in some way might be related to the monster in custody.
In conducting her investigation, Raquel must talk to everyone connected to the Gardener Estate who has been around since the time of the Highwayman murders. That means meeting with people like Rob, who appears to have never left the ’70s. It stands to reason as flashback sequences show a once proud Vietnam veteran returning to nothing but jeers of “baby killer” and shame. He didn’t even feel comfortable around his own family, including his older brother, Fort, who eventually came back home from India.
It seems that everything in the past sort of culminated in one specific event, a live music festival at the estate called “Back to the Garden,” which was held on June 22, 1979. The festival would not end without controversy, including a handful of disappearances that included Rob’s girlfriend. It also was allegedly the last time that anyone heard from Fort, who supposedly headed back to India. There were a plethora of questions surrounding the people associated with Rob Gardner, yet no inquiries were ever made. Now, years later, it must be determined if that skull piece is a remnant of the Highwayman’s work or the ill-fated festival.
Frustratingly, the deeper Raquel digs, the more questions she unearths than answers. But she has a reputation for being extremely clever and diligent in her work and plans to see this case through to the end. The Gardner Estate and family may be full of secrets, but sniffing them out happens to be her specialty.
BACK TO THE GARDEN is a pleasant departure for Laurie R. King. It is so nice to see all original characters from her after being addicted to her wonderful Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.
Teaser
A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 12th-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims?
Promo
A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 12th-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims?
About the Book
A 50-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life --- with potentially fatal consequences --- in this gripping stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.
A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 20th-century Eden.
And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.
Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.
Could the skull belong to one of his victims?
To Raquel --- a woman who knows all about colorful pasts --- the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate’s archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.
Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.
But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child and Rob’s brother, Fort.
The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case --- before The Highwayman slips away or another Gardener vanishes.
Audiobook available, read by Vivienne Leheny
