Published by Divided Light Projects ISBN 9780989284820
Trade paperback, $14.99, 210 pages
Susan Dworkin's novel, The Garden Lady, opens with a delivery man bringing Maxine Vandeblinken, wife of wealthy aviation businessman Albert Vandeblinken, an urgent envelope to her mansion. Inside is a photo of a murdered Albert, bringing Maxine to her knees.
Sam Euphemia worked his way up the chain in Brights International Express. His boss tasked him with finding out if Albert Vandeblinken was behind a criminal enterprise that sold faulty airplane parts to airlines which has resulted in multiple airplane crashes and deaths. He is disappointed that he is not the one who will bring to Vanderblinken to justice.
The story goes back and forth in time as we learn about Maxine and Sam's pasts. Maxine and her best friend CeeCee grew up during the Depression in Arizona. On the run from immigration authorities who were after CeeCee, Maxine faced a horrible traumatic experience.
Eventually Maxine worked her way up to become Maxi Dash, a successful model/actress. In her 50's, she met Albert, who wooed her until she agreed to marry him. He gave her a huge mansion that had a large vault hidden behind the refrigerator. He showed the many treasures stashed away there and told her to never go into the vault again.
Another one of his rules to her was that she was never to ask about his business. He hosted many business dinners with men from all over the world, where Maxine was to be beautiful, and seen but not heard.
Maxine asked Albert if she could have a garden outside, and she went about creating an immense garden, one that would take her years to complete. She discovered that the land was on top of a landfill, and she begin to intensely study what kind of plants could adapt to growing in that type of soil. She wanted to start a training farm, like the one her aunt had built to "teach us how to cope with the new world order."
Sam also had a traumatic incident in his life. While negotiating a deal for Brights Express in a foreign country, he was taken hostage and held for a very long time in horrible conditions. This scarred him physically and emotionally.
Sam decides the best way to get to Maxine to find out about Albert's business dealings is through her garden project. He gets himself appointed to the board of directors for the charitable foundation overseeing the garden.
Learning about the international transportation business was interesting, and Maxine's childhood captured my attention, but for me the intersection of the stories didn't work well. I think if the book concentrated more on either the Maxi or Sam character it would have worked better. There is a twist at the end that some people may have seen coming and will find intriguing.
Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Susan Dworkin's tour. The rest of her stops are here:
Tour Stops
Friday, March 22nd: Jathan & Heather
Monday, March 25th: Bibliotica
Tuesday, March 26th: Instagram: @book.hang.o.ver
Wednesday, March 27th: Life By Kristen
Friday, March 29th: A Chick Who Reads
Monday, April 1st: Eliot’s Eats
Tuesday, April 2nd: Jennifer ~ Tar Heel Reader
Thursday, April 4th: Wining Wife
Monday, April 8th: bookchickdi
Thursday, April 11th: Ms. Nose in a Book
Friday, April 12th: Broken Teepee
This sounds like a lot packed into a short book, it sounds like it would keep me turning pages! Thanks for being on this tour!
ReplyDeleteSara @ TLC Book Tours