Is your taste for the literary novel of feeling.., or do you prefer the stronger meat of crime fiction? Mark Mills is an author who can simultaneously satisfy both appetites.., he's a crime author capable of the kind of writing more often found at the bedside of Man Booker judges. But Mills is also a dab hand at plotting a mystery.., a mesmerizing piece of writing.., iridescent... Mills is a skilful writer and combines all the disparate strands into a striking tapestry.

Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own - and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it.

Young scholar Adam Stricldand is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War Italy is still a strange, even dangerous, place and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away in their past.

Before this mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years.., but is another tragedy about to be added to the villa's cursed history？