In his excellent debut,Eglin combines just the right amount of horticultural detail with well-drawn characters and absorbing plot. Mysterious deaths, a kidnapping, a chase and various shootings add to the suspense.
-Publisher's Weekly
Alex and Kate Sheppard have found the perfect house; the home they’d 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 a shocking discovery—one that defies every known law of nature and science. They find a blue rosebush flourishing in their walled garden. But as word of their discovery leaks out, the Sheppards’ 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 dilettante, Lawrence Kingston, a retired Professor of Botany, to whom they have entrusted their secret—the only way they can save their lives, is to unravel the dark seductive mystery of the Blue Rose.
Excerpt
He followed the old brick wall, occasionally placing his palm on its gritty surface to steady himself. Now he could see that it fell back, to create a crescent some thirty feet deep and sixty long—a hidden bed invisible to anyone on the path. Despite the shade cast by the curving wall, and the shrubs and small trees along the flat side of the crescent, enough light and sunshine penetrated the foliage for the flowers in front of the wall to grow into a colorful jumble. Most of them appeared to be roses. Roses with plump nodding blooms of dusky pink, coral, carmine, damask and ivory. They reminded him of an old Flemish painting—the kind painted on a dark background.
Alex stood, motionless, for what must have been at least a minute, fascinated by the composition: the luminescence, the gradations of shadow, the muted colors and textures.
As he turned to go back to the path he caught a glimpse of a foreign color, way in the back. No more than a flash, it was nevertheless electrifying.
He stopped.
It had disappeared.
He swayed to left, then slowly to the right, and—there it was again.
A trick of the light, surely. That color—
He eased his way in through the shrubs to take a closer look. Something scratched at his arm—he brushed away the thorn stuck into his skin. Pushing the arching cane aside, he halted, then stepped back a pace. What on earth—?
That couldn’t be right, could it?
Goose pimples tingled across his neck and scalp. Even with his scant knowledge of plants Alex knew he was looking at something very peculiar—bizarre, in fact.
He moved forward and reached out his hand to touch it.
“Jesus Christ,” he whispered. “Is this real?”
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