ARC review of "The Neglected Garden" by Suzanne Winterly

Ireland, 2010. Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business has trouble surviving the financial crash and a break up with a boyfriend and her sister about to get married (and wishing she would move out) does not make life more rosy.

Then she is offered a project to restore a neglected walled garden on an country estate near Dublin. The owner is Marc, an English property developer, who lives there with his 4-year old son and his housekeeper. The house is used as a conference centre and the buildings on the estate are rented to tenants.

At first glance it looks all very idyllic but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Marc experienced two traumatic events in his life and is now blackmailed by persons unknown and Gilly and the small boy see a strange white lady.

The novel has some romance elements in it but I was not so impressed. It feels like that comes up from thin air and you see no gradual warming. But that might be just me.
Another aspect of the novel is the mystery part and I did like that. Also thought it well thought through.
What I found really interesting was Marc's time doing business in Japan.
There is a lot of gardening in the book. For people with green thumbs a must I think. In my case sometimes quite lost in translation. As Gilly explains to someone flowers and plants have Latin names because the local names can be very confusing when you cross a border. I can vouch for that :).

Pub Date: 08 Feb 2019
4 stars out of 5