English Garden Mystery
5 primary works
Book 1
Alex and Kate Sheppard have found the perfect house; the home they had always dreamed of owning. Nestled deep in the Wiltshire countryside and surrounded by a two acre walled garden, The Parsonage was to be their own little paradise...but nothing stays perfect forever. Soon after moving in they make an impossibly exciting discovery - one that defies every known law of nature and science. They find a blue rose bush flourishing in their walled garden. But as word of their discovery leaks out, the Sheppard's peaceful existence is shattered and they find themselves plunged into a world of coded journals, genetic experiments, cold-blooded greed and ultimately, murder. Threatened from every direction, with no one to trust but themselves and Lawrence Kingston, a gardening expert to whom they have revealed their exciting secret - the only way they can save their lives is to unravel the dark, seductive secret of the Blue Rose.
Book 2
Lawrence Kingston, a retired professor of botany and amateur sleuth, launches an investigation when a human skeleton is uncovered during the restoration of Wickersham Priory's magnificent gardens.
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
In the garden of a country estate, an ancient monument holds a cryptic secret. Chiseled on it is a coded inscription that has baffled the world's cleverest minds for two centuries. When a child playing near the monument stumbles upon the dead body of a man, another mystery is revealed: in his pocket is a scrap of paper bearing a sequence of letters. The police suspect that it may be part of a coded message but their investigation leads nowhere. The case at a standstill, Lawrence Kingston, retired professor of botany, is hired to conduct an independent inquiry. Soon, Kingston finds himself swept along in a dangerous undertow of a centuries-old family feud, a suspicious poisoning and veiled threats, leading him to fear for his own life. To solve the secret of the past and crimes of the present, he must decipher a complex code hidden in the walls of an old manor house. But to do so, he must first delve into the minds of three eminent 18th century Englishmen to fathom what part they played in the age-old mystery. As his search for the truth narrow, his worst fears materialize when he becomes the next target.