The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2 cover art

The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2

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The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2

By: William Brodrick
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
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About this listen

Elizabeth Glendinning QC has lost faith in the legal system to which she has given her life. In an attempt to restore it, she has secretly devised a scheme to bring a guilty man back to court -- Graham Riley, whom she had successfully defended some ten years previously.

As part of an elaborate contingency plan, Elizabeth leaves the unsuspecting Anselm with a key to a safety deposit box, to be opened in the event of her death. Three weeks later she is found dead in the East End of London. Once the box has been opened, a chain of events is triggered as if from beyond the grave, and Anselm is led to fulfil what Elizabeth has begun.

The Gardens of the Dead is the second, thrilling outing for William Broderick's detective Anselm.

©2006 William Brodrick (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting Fiction

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I was drawn to this after an accidental introduction to William Broderick on a train (another passenger having left The Sixth Lamentation after a hasty departure!).
Unfortunately like many authors Broderick's second book just doesn't match his first and this offering is overly complicated and cumbersome leaving the listener rather frustrated. The plot is slowly drip fed, skipping backwards and forwards through time and presenting from various character's points of view. It adds little to the experience and feels rather like Broderick has been on a number of " How to write" courses and thrown every plot device he learned at this one book.
In addition Father Anslem's ponderous musings on life (occasionally irksome in the first book but increasing so in this one ) have become more cryptic - leading to a uncomfortable feeling that Broderick wishes his hero to be seen as profound but actually writes him as rather confused .
The narrator does a good job with a rather wearisome task and at the end you are left feeling rather underwhelmed.
It's a shame as the premise is good and Anslem has real possibilities but I'm not sure I have the patience to find out.

Slow and overly complex

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Enjoyed this very much. Perhaps not as good as book 1. However this will not deter me from starting book 3 asap. William Broderick writes a good tale with many twists along the tale that eventually unfold and are resolved at the end.

Would recommend

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Possibly not suited to an audio format, this fiction work is slow and boring. I found myself losing patience and interest as the various poorly signalled shifts in time and place occurred. With so many distasteful or uninteresting characters, there was not one sufficiently appealing to justify the effort of continuing to the end. I reached the finish line only because I had paid to download the book.

Disappointing

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I downloaded (and wished I hadn't) Wiliam Brodrick's four books with Father Anselm in them, because I thought they might be (and sounded) interesting. As a previous reviewer has said, I only finished it because I had paid for it. I have one of his books on disc sitting in the car and I will probably throw that, as I will the other three (one completely unread), because they bore me to tears and I don't really care who does what to whom! Or, did what to whom!

The gardens of the dead

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