"Intriguing blend of creepy mystery, Scottish folklore and nail-biting suspense."
Reviewed by Tanzey Cutter
Posted August 20, 2015
Suspense
Divorcee Gloria Harkness lives a dull, lonely life in a
house in the woods near the secluded care home where her
disabled son Nicky resides. The home's building and
surrounding grounds used to be an experimental school for
young children, oddly named Eden, until chilling events
there closed it down almost 30 years ago. Now those past
events have come back to haunt the woods -- and Gloria's
life -- when one of the children involved in the tragic
incident tries to find out if it was suicide or murder. When an old childhood friend of Gloria's, Stephen (Stig)
Tarrant from Castle Douglas, turns up at her door late one
night, Gloria cannot believe the tale he tells her. He was
one of the students at Eden and a female classmate from
there has been stalking him to pursue the truth about what
really happened that dark, mysterious night all those years
ago. Gloria is surprised at how resourceful she can be as
she's drawn into the search for the truth. However, what
she uncovers, and how it will change her life, is more
shocking than she could have ever imagined. A bit slow at the start, Catriona McPherson's THE
CHILD GARDEN soon takes off at a fast pace with
spellbinding suspense to a riveting ending. Characters are
complex and believable in an intriguing Scottish locale
with a tightly woven and unique plot. This is the first
book I've read by Catriona McPherson, but it won't
be the last. She's a distinctively talented author.
SUMMARY
Eden was its name. "An alternative school for happy
children." But it closed in disgrace after a student's
suicide. Now it's a care home, its grounds neglected and
overgrown. Gloria Harkness is its only neighbor, staying
close to her son who lives there in the home, lighting up
her life and breaking her heart each day. When a childhood friend turns up at her door, Gloria doesn't
hesitate before asking him in. He claims a girl from Eden is
stalking him and has goaded him into meeting her at the site
of the suicide. Only then, the dead begin to speak—it
was murder, they say. Gloria is in over her head before she can help it. Her
loneliness, her loyalty, and her all-consuming love for her
son lead her into the heart of a dark secret that threatens
everything she lives for.
ExcerptI keep the spare bed made up more because it looks pretty
with the quilt and pillow slips than in hope or fear of
sudden guests. No one has stayed in this house except me
since I moved in ten years ago. The nearest miss was one
night when my mother and father came to see Nicky and
came back here after. Dad was too shocked to drive and I
got as far as boiling water for hot bottles before Mum
came to her senses and realised what was happening.“We haven’t set the alarm,” she’d said. “We haven’t set
light timers. I’ve left a washing out.” As if Castle
Douglas was some hotbed of crime. “Come on, Trevor, stir
yourself. You’ll be fine when you get going.” She had turned back at the front door as my dad weaved
towards the car; doddered almost, suddenly an old man. “Look what you’ve done to your father,” she said. “How
could you be so thoughtless?” “Mum, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about,” I
said. “The way you puffed it all up. A new place, better care.
You got our hopes up, Gloria. I’ll never forgive you.” The only bright spot in the whole episode was Miss Drumm
the next day. She’d been listening through the connecting
door. “So that’s your mother, is it?” she’d said. “That’s
Nicky’s grandmamma? She’s one you’d leave inside the
wolf.” “What are you smiling about?” said Stig. I was
concentrating on filling the bottles, hadn’t realised the
thoughts were showing on my face. “A happy memory,” I said. “And an appropriate one too.
You can’t choose your family, but friends are a fine
thing.” I love Rough House for saving my life but showing Stig
round, I saw it through his eyes. The only bathroom is
downstairs, with just a bath, no shower and no heater
either, and the rickety window lets the drafts howl
through. It’s a long way upstairs to the bedrooms, four
of them, the two big ones facing the sunny garden and the
two little ones with the arrow-slit windows facing out
the back to the yard. Facing the sunny garden in the
daytime in the summer if and when the sun shone, I
thought, leading Stig into the room at the top of the
stairs. On a night like this, it looked like where Jane
Eyre saw the ghost. The furniture was something Miss
Drumm called pickled walnut. The wallpaper was a sort of
colourless pinky beige in a raised pattern that looked a
bit like fungus, and the carpet and curtains were much
the same. The crocheted mats, worked in white and stained
with tea, and the crocheted, tea-stained handles on the
brown-paper sun blinds didn’t help. Cat sick, Miss Drumm
called it, which made me shudder, but at least the quilt
and the pillow slips were satin. I drew the line at
candlewick; all her candlewick covers were in the linen
cupboard, dry-cleaned and stored in bags sucked small
with the Hoover. “I’ll put towels in the bathroom for you,” I said, as I
slid the two hot water bottles in under the bedclothes.
“And a toothbrush. And I’ll set out a razor. Can you
sleep in the sweat suit for now? I won’t be long and no
one will come to the door, I promise, but if they do,
don’t answer. No one’s got a spare key. No one can get
in.” “What?” he said. “Where are you going?” “Phone box at Shawhead. It’s tucked well away and
nobody’s even going to be walking a dog at this time of
night when it’s like this, are they?” “You’re really going to call the police?” “I’ve got to. We can’t leave her there on her own in the
cold and dark.” “I can’t ask you to do that” he said. “You don’t owe me.” “Anonymously and a woman’s voice,” I said. “It’s best
that way. They’ll probably want to ask me if I heard
anything or saw anything, but they’ll get me at work
tomorrow. They won’t come round here. There’s no reason
for them to connect me with April.” He nodded. I held out my hand. “I’ll put your car away while I’m out.” He nodded again and fished his car keys out of the sweat
pants pocket. I was almost out the door when he stopped
me. “Glo?” he said. “You know earlier, when you were freaking
out about them closing the home? Thinking someone who
works there might be mixed up in this?” I nodded. “Why
would you want them looking after your boy if you reckon
that’s possible? Why wouldn’t you want the place closed
down if there’s someone there who might harm him?” I took a long time deciding what to say, but in the end I
was as straight with him as he’d been with me. “What’s
the worst they could do?” “I don’t want to say it.” “Say it.” “They could kill him.” “And his troubles would be over. Don’t look at me like
that.” “Or they could hurt him.” “No, they couldn’t,” I said. “Wait here.” I walked along
the corridor to the big bedroom at the other end and
lifted Nicky’s picture from my bedside table. “Oh,” said Stig, when I came back and handed it to him.
“What’s caused that then?” That’s a fair enough question and so I answered him.
“Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration,” I
said, taking the picture back and polishing the frame
with my cuff. “PKAN, for short” I kissed the glass over
Nicky’s face “My little PKAN pie. Nothing hurts him,
nothing helps him, nothing ever will. I’d best be off.” “Of course, if you’re going to tell them that Stephen
Tarrant drove a woman to suicide and you’ve got him
locked in your house without his car keys, there’s
nothing I could do to stop you,” Stig said. He was
smiling at me. “You could overpower me now before I start,” I said,
smiling back. “If you’re going to leave one woman’s body
behind you, why not two?” We considered one another for a long minute. I’m not sure
who broke eye contact first. Probably me since I’m not
much of a hard nut. “Drive safely,” he said. “Sleep tight,” I said back.
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