THE SAVAGE GARDEN by Mark Mills

Amagansett was a hard act to follow.  This novel does not quite measure up, and I might have enjoyed it more if my expectations had not been so high.  The main character is Adam Strickland, a somewhat lazy Cambridge art history student.  His thesis professor sends him to study a Tuscan garden that was built by a Renaissance nobleman as a memorial to his dead wife.  Adam finds himself drawn to the memorial garden and embarks on a mission to unlock all of the symbolism that its mythological statues and other structures represent.  I found all of the clues to be a bit of stretch, and Adam’s quest reminded me somewhat of a Dan Brown novel, but this book is better written and not quite as shallow.  Signora Docci, who owns the garden and the adjacent villa, turns out to be the professor’s ex-lover, but that’s not the only family secret.  Adam sets out to solve not only the enigma of the garden but also the mystery surrounding the murder of the Signora’s oldest son Emilio, a Nazi sympathizer who was allegedly killed by Germans.  The author does inject a bit of humor with the character of Harry, Adam’s charismatic but unreliable brother, giving this novel a much lighter tone that Amagansett.  Mark Mills is a master of suspense and pacing, but I would have appreciated a little more depth to the characters.