'Garden of Lies' by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Amanda Quick

Published by Piatkus,
21 April 2015. 
ISBN 978-0-349-40166-9

This is the most recent adventure from the pen of a prolific and best selling writer.  The elements of mystery, history and romance are seamlessly blended here.  The heroine is Mrs Ursula Kern who runs a high class secretarial agency in Victorian London.

One of the women employed by Mrs Kern, Anne Clifton, has died in what the police believe to be a suicide; Ursula Kern is not convinced of this so she sets out to find out exactly what happened to Anne.  Her starting point is with the person who was employing Miss Clifton at the time of her death.   Since Ursula decides to replace Anne as secretary she must tell the man by whom she herself is currently employed in cataloguing historical artefacts.  He is the mysterious Slater Ruxton, archaeologist and adventurer, who is not best pleased by Ursula's decision.  Both Ursula and Slater harbour deep secrets and prefer to wear the deepest black, though from different motives.

The story involves blackmail plots, murders, villainous and ruthless opponents, dangerous drugs and sexual encounters.  Definitely the mixture as before from Amanda Quick!   Our doughty hero and clever heroine develop a close relationship cemented by the dangers they encounter.  Eventually a conclusion is reached and the loose ends all neatly tied up.

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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer

Under various pseudonyms Jayne Ann Krentz has written more than 50 bestselling novels.

Amanda Quick is a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, who was born 28 March 1948. She was educated at  San Jose State University, University of California, Santa Cruz.  She is the author, under various pen names, of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers; there are more than 35 million copies of her books in print. She lives in Seattle.

jayneannkrentz.com

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.