Gardens Of The Dead

Product Description
In his acclaimed debut,
The Sixth Lamentation, William Brodrick introduced one of the mystery genres most indelible heroes: Father Anselm, English barrister-turned-monk. Marking his triumphant return,
The Gardens of the Dead begins with the unexpected death of a former colleague of Anselms who had reopened an old caseone in which Anselm featured prominently. The monk, soon immersed in a mystery that sheds light on the darkest corners of Londons judicial system, finds himself confronting age-old questions: What is justice? What, ultimately, is evil? Psychologically complex and suspenseful, this atmospheric novel establishes William Brodrick as a singular writing talent.
From Publishers Weekly
Sharply etched characters who owe a lot to the darker side of Dickens lift Brodrick’s sequel to his well-received debut,
The Sixth Lamentation (2003), which introduced Father Anselm, an English lawyer turned monk. Unfortunately, many of the descriptive scenesa homeless man endlessly sharing toast and hot chocolate with a shrewd London female barrister for whom he acts as an informant, for examplestart off with poignant power, but eventually become just padding. At the time of her death by heart attack, this highly principled woman, Elizabeth Glendinning, was trying to correct a miscarriage of justice that she and Father Anselm had been involved in when he was still a lawyer. A convicted sex criminal was set free who had always proclaimed his innocence and blamed the crimes on his employer, known only as “The Pieman,” whose identity has never been revealed to readersuntil now. Brodrick has all the right moves, but fewer slices of toast would have made for a tighter plot.
(Sept.)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Many novelists working in crime try to deepen readers’ involvement by always upping the ante: more bodies, more gore, more misery. Brodrick, a monk-turned-barrister whose hero, Father Anselm, is a barrister-turned-monk, does the opposite with riveting results. When Elizabeth Glendinning dies suddenly, she leaves behind a tangle of mysterious directions but one overriding imperative: “Leave it to Anselm.” Anselm plays out his friend and former associate’s complex but flawed scheme, learning that her last acts were attempts to undo a long-ago evil and discovering even more than she’d meant him to. Though wise, Anselm is no supersleuth, rather “shy and boyish, as if he were on his way to the podium to pick up the diligence prize after all the clever children had returned to their seats.” And Brodrick’s England is a somber place that stands somehow out of time, lending an allegorical quality to the several journeys here. But Brodrick gains remarkable power from the life-or-death seriousness with which he treats his characters’ moral travails, of the urgent value he places on something often ignored in crime fiction–their souls. With just his second novel (
The 6th Lamentation, 2003), Brodrick already writes like a master.
Keir Graff

Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
William Brodrick was a Franciscan friar before leaving the order to become a practicing barrister.
From the Back Cover
Praise for The Gardens of the Dead
“Brodrickweaves exciting shadowy drama with deep characterization.”
GQ (UK)

“
The Gardens of the Dead has gravity and grace, as well as a powerful atmosphere of creeping dread.”

Time out (UK)

“A tense and compelling investigation into a mystery that ends up with answers far more revealing and profound than appear in most thrillers.”

Gateway (UK)
Review
With just his second novel, Brodrick already writes like a master.

Booklist, starred review

Sharply etched characters who owe a lot to the darker side of Dickens lift Brodricks sequel to his well-received debut.