Laurie King’s got game. It’s been a while since I’ve picked up one of her books, but it came back to me in a flood how she truly excels at two things: setting up her story and delineating and bringing to life characters better than almost any writer alive. Back to the Garden is a standalone, set partially in the present and partially in the past at the tail end of the early ’70s. The story takes place at the Gardener estate, a place that sounds very much like the Hearst Castle.
In the present, Gardener is run as a trust and the gardens and the house are now a museum. Midsummer Eve, a famous statue done by well-known female artist Gaddo, has perched in a field at the back of the garden for almost half a century, but now seems ready to fall over. When the estate manager, Jen, makes the decision to move it in preparation for a new base, the workers find a skeleton underneath it, apparently put there in 1972 when the original concrete base was poured.
The discovery captures the attention of Inspector Raquel Laing, who is working with a cold case team to discover all the victims of a killer known as “The Highwayman” before the old man dies. He murdered a string of women in the early ’70s and Inspector Laing thinks this might be one of his.
Laing’s story runs parallel to the story of Rob Gardener, a Vietnam vet who grew up under the care of his cold and imperious grandfather on the estate. Rob only returns to California when “the old bastard” dies and he inherits the estate, eventually turning it into a commune for several years before things fall apart. Like all the best dual narrative books, both storylines are compelling, and they eventually intersect.
There are many, many references to the Garden of Eden, starting with the statue of Eve that begins the action. Rob’s attempt at setting up the commune works—for a while. The author brings to life for the reader the hopeful days of the late ’60s, as well as when they begin to fade into the more jaded and dangerous ’70s. It’s a heartbreak to see what might have been—Rob and his friends are so optimistic.
Raquel’s careful work on the case in the present brings the novel to a denouement that makes awful sense, made all the more interesting by King’s illustration of the ways Laing hones her skills as an investigator. It’s a lesson in listening and paying attention in the right way. King threads together past and the present, hope and despair, as she writes of messy humans making an Eden—even if just for a little bit of time. Back to the Garden is a thoughtful, lovely book. One of the reads of the year.
