Friday Finds at the Bookstore: The Serpent in the Garden by Janet Gleeson

 

Pub. Date: February 2005 (In bookstores now)
Format: Paperback, 352pp

I love it when your walking through the bookstore and you find a book that you remember reading and enjoying years ago. I read this book when it was first published in 2005. As far as I can remember, it was a really good book that I read in record time. There was one gruesome spot that I can recall, but the rest of the book made up for it. This book was a very fast paced read with a plot that was full of twists and just when you think you have it all figured out...

Synopsis: (From the Publisher)

She opened the shagreen box. Couched in gray silk was an emerald necklace, one he had not seen for twenty years. The stones were just as he recalled them: a dozen or more, baguette cut and set in gold links, with a single ruby at the center. Flashes of verdigris, orpiment, and Prussian blue sparkled in the candlelight. The form of this necklace was as disturbing as ever. It had nearly cost him his life.

It is the summer of 1765. The renowned and exquisitely dressed portrait painter Joshua Pope accepts a commission to paint the wedding portrait of Herbert Bentnick and his fiancée, Sabine Mercer, to whom Bentnick has become engaged less than a year after the death of his first wife. Joshua has barely begun the portrait when a man's body is found in the conservatory. A few days later, Sabine's emerald necklace disappears, and Bentnick accuses Joshua of theft. The painter is suddenly fighting not only for his reputation but for his life. With a sure understanding of period detail and character, Janet Gleeson creates a richly nuanced tale of greed and revenge that plays out in the refined landscapes and dark streets of eighteenth-century London.

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Sunday Finds at the Bookstore is going to be posted on Friday's from now on, and of course the title will be changed to FRIDAY Finds at the Bookstore. "Why the change" you might ask...well I am just starting a new weekly event called Suddenly Sunday and so it has of course taken the Sunday spot of my blog. If you want to view the first Suddenly Sunday post and see what it's all about, you may view it here: Suddenly Sunday.