The Savage Garden - Mark Mills

We take another break from comic reviews for another book review! Look, I have to return these books at the end of the week, so this has to get done now, alright?

The Savage Garden details a perceptive yet lazy college student's trip to a beautiful garden in Tuscany, as the subject for a thesis. Adam's professor, Dr. Leonard, suggested it to him, and Adam took it largely because it was a paid trip to Italy. Once he arrives, he begins unraveling the riddle of the elegantly (and purposefully) designed garden at Villa Docci. As it becomes apparent that the Lord of the manor who commissioned it in the 16th century had more planned than simply honoring his deceased wife, Adam also finds himself drawn into intrigue surrounding the current set of Doccis, and the circumstances of Emilio Doccis death during WW2.

Of the three of Mills' books I've read over the last two weeks, I think this was my favorite. Even if much of the discussion of art and architecture flies right over my head, I still found it an interesting subject to drive a mystery. I've also grown accustomed to certain patterns of Mills' writing to the point they don't really annoy me.

I'm actually a bit curious as to what the meaning of the repetitions and differences between the three books might mean. They all have an Englishman as the main character, set primarily in the Mediterranean. House of the Hunted was set during the mid-1930s (except for a brief prologue in Russia in 1919). The Information Officer was set in 1942 (except for framing references set a decade later), and this one is in the 1950s. Each main character has a failed relationship in their past. Max received a letter from his fiance saying she'd met someone else, Thomas Nash had Irina who he thought ran afoul of the Russian secret police, and Adam has Gloria break up with him just before he leaves for Tuscany. They all seem to find a more satisfying romantic relationship over the course of the book, but in between there's a more purely physical interlude, which carries on for varying amounts of time. The women initiate and terminate the majority of the relationships, if their family are involved (whether as support or an obstacle), it's a female relative. The father is either absent (Lilian's father in The Information Officer) or oblivious. Adam is the only one of the three (he, Max, or Nash) whose own family play any sort of role, but he's also the youngest by far, early 20s. Nash is mid-30s, Max probably even older.

It could be Mills simply likes to mix up the formula a bit, but it seems like there must be some purpose to it. However, I need to reread Amagansett to see how it fits into this, if it does. Anyway, I recommend The Savage Garden. In some ways it's a very simple mystery (enough so I could piece it together), in other ways more complex. There's less action, in terms of fighting or car chases, than the other two, but it doesn't feel slow-paced, except near the end when it felt like Mills padded some of the scenes unnecessarily. They weren't boring conversations, they just felt extraneous.