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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780312949327
ISBN number: 0312949324
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: March 06, 2007
Publishing house: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: March 06, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 287515
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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Product Description:
When California winemaker Jamie Gibson inherits Wickersham Priory, she moves to England to cultivate a new life on the massive 200-acre estate. But the once-grand gardens are now in disrepair, their overgrowth obscuring pathways and erasing buildings. Jamie vows to restore the gardens in honor of her benefactor, who happens to be a complete stranger.
She hires Lawrence Kingston, a retired professor of botany, to reproduce the gardens from their heyday. Unable to tame his curiosity, Lawrence begins investigating why Jamie was named heir to this vast fortune. His interest grows when he discovers the old Wickersham well that now holds human bones—and the truth of a long-ago murder.
Kingston’s meddling has tilled up the past, but when workers on their project keep turning up dead, he and Jamie must escape their present thorny situation…or they too risk being buried amidst the garden’s secrets.
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Rated by buyers 
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I bought this book as it turned up as an amazon "recommended" book. Hey, I love gardens. I love English mysteries. What's not to like? The garden and the horticultural details were fascinating. I enjoyed the slow unfolding of the history of Major Ryder.
But it was not exactly an Agatha Christie. No real surprises about "whodunnit". No multiple likely suspects to keep you guessing. No plot twist at the end. The character who makes a suspicious entrance early in the book is really the only suspect. It's just a question of what happens until he's unmasked.
I also never quite understood why the heroine was so downright reluctant to try to determine why this vast English estate had been left to her by a total stranger. I can't believe she just moved over to England and took it on without, apparently, the least bit of curiousity about why it had been left to her. She even actively tried to discourage Kingston from investigating when be began looking on her behalf. That just never rang true, and I kept waiting for some surprise ulterior motive to arise, but it never did.
However I did like it well enough that I've gone and ordered the author's Blue Ross as well.
Rated by buyers -
This is the second book (The Blue Rose was the first) with Lawrence Kingston as the amateur detective who mixes horticulture with crime solving. Jamie Gibson is an American woman who has inherited Wickersham Priory in Somerset, England. She hires Kingston to restore the estate's neglected gardens. In the underbrush, Kingston discovers a ruined chapel complete with a healing well, which turns out to contain human remains. Kingston investigates and a series of dire events--two deaths, a car accident, a rifled flat--keeps the plot moving, but it's the wealth of gardening description and the work trying to bring the neglected garden back to it's former glory that makes this book such an enjoyable read.
Elgin has an easy style and he doesn't overwhelm the reader with too much gardening information at the expense of the plot. Kingston is an "older" man with a wealth of life experiences and he makes for an appealing detective. There is a vague hint of possible attraction between him and Jamie, but at least in this book, nothing much comes of it. I'll look forward to reading the subsequent Elgin book with the hope that the widower Kingston and Jamie reconnect.
Rated by buyers -
THE LOST GARDENS is the second book in this series. The very first book is THE BLUE ROSE.
To her surprise, Jamie Gibson, a young woman from California inherits Wickersham Priory, a huge old estate in England. Since she didn't know the owner, she doesn't know why the deceased Mr. Ryder left the estate to her. She's astounded by her good fortune and almost afraid to delve too much into the past.
The estate has over 200 acres of land and most of that is terribly over grown through decades of neglect. At one time, the gardens were known for their beauty and Jamie, in tribute to the Ryder family decides to restore the grounds and gardens to their former splendor.
She hires Lawrence Kingston, who had been the head research botanist at Edinburgh University. Lawrence is a retired widower and only takes jobs that pique his interest. After a visit to the jungle that used to be a garden, Lawrence agrees to take on the restoration. There are numerous ruins of buildings on the site and when Lawrence discovers some human bones in the old chapel, he wants to uncover all of the mysteries of Wickersham Priory.
I found the garden information to be very interesting and my favorite parts of the story. I learned a lot. The author, Anthony Eglin, has a background in horticulture and has co-produced some garden videos. His mystery could have been a little more exciting, but that said; I still enjoyed the story. I didn't find Jamie, the female character, to be believable but I liked the main character, Lawrence Kingston, and think the author has a great formula to continue on with more books in this series. I have the feeling that his stories will get better and better! I also intend to read his very first book, THE BLUE ROSE.
Rated by buyers 
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The Lost Gardens, the second in a (hopefully) on-going series by Anthony Eglin picks up the story of Professor Lawrence Kingston following the murder and intrigue surrounding the discovery and theft of a unique blue rose, the Holy Grail of gardeners. This story is recounted in "The Blue Rose" and my review can be found in this previous post.
In this new story, Kingston is hired to restore a huge manor garden to its former glory after the property is inherited, unexpectedly and unexplainably, by a young, American woman. When a dis-used chapel is found on the property, complete with a skeleton in its well, Kingston is again involved in detective work, archeological mysteries and murder.
While not quite as action-packed as the very first book, The lost Gardens is a grand combination of gardening lore, history, mystery and action-adventure. Kingston become even more likable than before, less curmudgeonly and might even be falling in love again.
Eglin gives a charming feel to the English countryside, despite the untoward events that occur and leads the reader down a wandering garden path to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.
I look forward to more books in this series that combine my interests in gardening and my love of a great mystery.
Rated by buyers -
This is Eglin's second "English Garden" mystery (the very first being "The Blue Rose") and it is just as enjoyable. His books are reminescent of "tea cozies" but they are a slight elevation about that. The mystery is not particularly interesting, or suspensful for that matter, but Eglin makes up for that with his fascinating asides to gardening lore. Eglin comments that this book was inspired by "The Lost Gardens of Heligan," a true-life account of the discovery and uncovering of an estate garden in England. As retired botanist/amateur sleuth Lawrence Kingston and his client, Jamie Gibson, begin to rescue the overgrown garden at Wickersham Priory, the reader is treated to highly interesting details regarding gardening history, wine-making, Lawrence Johnson and his famous garden at Hidcote, and garden design. The book moves at a brisk pace and doesn't overstay its welcome. A fun read!
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