In The Rose Garden, Susanna Kearsley (The Winter Sea) channels Mary Stewart, presenting her readers with an evocative romance set on the Cornish coast. As the novel opens, Kearsley's heroine, Eva, is reeling from the death of her older sister, Katrina. Hoping to lay her sister to rest in the place that meant the most to her and to take some small measure of comfort herself, Eva returns to Trelowarth House, the Cornish estate where they spent their summers as children. When she begins hearing and seeing things that aren't there, she assumes that the stress and grief are bringing on hallucinations. But when reality melts around her and is replaced by 18th-century smugglers and Jacobite sympathizers, Eva runs out of logical explanations.
Kearsley paints vivid pictures of both picturesque modern Cornwall and the romantic and dangerous Cornwall of the 1700s. Her characters are slightly less well drawn, however. The modern bunch are pleasant but mostly forgettable, while Eva herself is ever so slightly bland. All the color and personality seems to have been saved for the 18th-century characters. The romantic interest, smuggler Daniel Butler, is entirely lovely, and his nemesis, Constable Creed, is a chilling and sadistic villain, though slightly underdeveloped. The real jewel, though, is the cantankerous Fergal, who poses as Eva's brother and engages the reader's attention so completely that he steals even the scenes he's not a part of. Throw in a few time travel plot twists and The Rose Garden makes for a truly entertaining read. --Judie Evans, librarian