"The Cipher Garden": Playing by the Rules

It's a pleasure to be able to recommend new books by a new author from time to time, and here's one that really follows many of the patterns set by Golden Age authors. It's called "The Cipher Garden," by Martin Edwards, a British author with several successful mysteries to his credit.

Set in England's beautiful Lake District villages, Edwards knits two investigations into one here. The first centers on the murder of a local gardener, Warren Howe. At the time of the murder, police discovered that there were plenty of people with possible murder to kill Howe, who appeared to have tried to seduce virtually any woman with a pulse. Police are unable to make an arrest, but, several years later, an anonymous letter to police persuades Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett of the local Cold Case Review Team to reopen the investigation.

Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind, who has moved to the area, is intrigued by the peculiar layout of his own garden, and he hires Howe's former partner to help him figure out what mystery - if any - lies behind its design. Kind fancies himself as an amateur sleuth, and he becomes drawn into the investigation of Howe's murder - and, willingly or unwillingly, into a closer relationship with DCI Scarlett.

As I say, the two stories are very skillfully woven together. The result combines police procedural with classic puzzle mystery. And, while the reader is given plenty of clues, there are a number of devastating surprises and twists in this novel which may be as shocking to the reader as they are to the characters. While the layout of the mystery is quite classical, the themes and events are very much the stuff of today's newspaper headlines. There are powerful scenes and images that are likely to linger in the reader's memory.

I think it's an excellent mystery, and I plan to read Edwards' other books. "The Cipher Garden" is readily available - see the link above - and tremendously satisfying.