Faith, Fiction, Friends: "Murder in the Garden" by Faith Martin

Thursday, April 6, 2023

"Murder in the Garden" by Faith Martin

It’s one of those family tragedies all around.

A retired postal worker is found dead in his meticulously kept garden. His daughter and grandchildren have lived with him for a few years after the death of her husband. And she is failing fast with cancer.

The Thames Valley Police Force at Kidlington near Oxford is still reeling from the sniper death of a beloved superintendent. Detective Inspector Hillary Greene was there when it happened, as a group walked out of headquarters into the parking garage. She’s now back after two months leave, and she’s dealing with her own problems with the death, this new murder case, and the superintendent’s pregnant widow, herself a police officer, deciding to undertake her own investigation into her husband’s death.

They all know who the murderer is. The problem is that they have zero evidence. The suspect’s house is being watched. No one thinks he’s finished. And then he slips away without anyone realizing he’s gone.

Faith Martin

Murder in the Garden is the ninth novel in the DI Hillary Greene series by British author Faith Martin. Its predecessor, Murder in the Mansion, turned into a riveting edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller – and this one follows in the same vein. It requires a close read to keep track of several narrative threads happening at the same time, but your careful reading is well rewarded. It’s a gem of a mystery novel.

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.