Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick

                  I did not come across Garden of Lies on my own.  My mother gave it to me.  She had read it and thought I might like it.  I certainly did.  The book mixes two things I really enjoy: historical fiction and mysteries.  Set in Victorian London the book definitely got the historical fiction part down.  As for the mystery, it is probably one of the best I have read in quite awhile.                 

                Ursula Kern does not believe her friend commit suicide.  Anne made a good living working for Ursula’s secretarial agency and always came into the office happy.  There’s nothing to lead one to think she would take her own life.  At least not anyone that really knew her.  The police are convinced Anne either commit suicide or died of a drug overdose.  Either way, they do not suspect foul play, but Ursula does and she’s going to do whatever it takes to find out what really happened.

                The first thing Ursula decides she must do is take over Anne’s secretarial assignment.  In order to have the time to do this, she must quit her own assignment, at least temporarily.  One would think this would be an easy thing to do, but her client is the mysterious Slater Roxton.  He spent a year on an island thought to be dead.  Then he traveled the world searching for lost and stolen antiquities.  Now that he is home to stay, there are all sorts of rumors swirling around society about him.  Slater doesn’t care.  It matters very little to him what other people say or what opinions they have.  Slater is going to be who he is and that’s it.  Everyone else can just deal with it. 

                Someone in that group of "everyone else" ends up being Ursula.  When she tells Slater she will no longer be serving as his secretary, he demands to know why, and he won’t accept just any answer.  Slater wants the entire truth, no matter what it is.  Fortunately for Slater, he is not the cause of Ursula’s leaving.  Unfortunately for him, what Ursula plans to do it dangerous, and Slater understands that right away.  He insists he come in on the investigation and help Ursula figure out what happened to her friend.  Ursula is not so sure about this, but eventually she agrees.  Slater was not going take “no” for an answer anyways, so she might as well use someone like Slater to her advantage.  What Ursula doesn’t realize is Slater’s true reason for wanting to help.  It has nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with his feelings for Ursula.                  

                As Ursula and Slater investigate Anne’s death, they discover they are becoming involved in something bigger than they ever thought.  Not only is Anne’s death a question, but there are other suicides and murders as well.  They also uncover a very successful drug business along with a blackmail scheme.  Add attempts on Ursula’s and Slater’s lives and you have a lot going on in a case that started out with a single suspicious death.

                Despite all that is going on, Ursula and Slater will not be deterred from their mission.  Not even when their lives are put at risk, although Slater does become increasingly protective as the investigation continues on.  He does not want anything to happen to Ursula, especially since she has started to express her feelings for him.  This new aspect of their relationship thrills Slater, but it makes Ursula wary.  She has a secret from her past to hide.  It is a secret that could ruin all she has built if it were to get in the wrong hands.  Her guard cannot be let down, not even for someone with whom she is falling in love. 

                This book moved really fast.  Before I knew it, I was several chapters in and all I wanted to do was keep reading.  It did not take long at all for me to read this book in its entirety.  The mystery was very good and I liked the characters.  I don’t think there was a single character that annoyed me.  Even the journalist who wanted to use Ursula’s secret against her ended up not being too bad.  Slater’s servants I especially got a kick out of.  They were very unconventional as each one of them was an unemployed actor.  Nothing they did was quite the same as what traditionally trained servants would do, but they cared greatly for Slater, as well as for Ursula, despite hardly knowing her at all.  The same could be said for Slater’s mother, Lilly.  A former actress and now a playwright, she is a riot.  Everyone else is afraid of her son, but Lilly has zero problem telling Slater exactly what she thinks.  In truth, Lilly is far more formidable than Slater would ever think to be. 

                 The end of the book felt left open to me. While the mystery was solved, I felt it was not perfectly clear what was going to happen next in the lives of Ursula and Slater. It made me wonder if this book was going to become the start of a series. If it is, I would love to read the next, but I don’t know if there will be one. This may be all we ever see of these two characters, and all I can do is wait to find out.