title: Garden of Secrets Past: An English Garden Mystery (English Garden Mysteries)
author:  Anthony Eglin 
description: Engaging an intricate plot, colorful characters, and vivid descriptions of locales from London to small villages add up to an entertaining read. (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>)<br /><br />Lawrence Kingston [is] a bit of a garden-digging Hercule Poirot.... In <i>Garden of Secrets Past</i>, Eglin steps up the mystery several notches with the inclusion of even more shady characters, a secret code and a bit of a love interest for, no longer young, Kingston.... the mystery is top-notch. (<i>welchwrite.com</i>)<br /><br />The master of botanical mysteries. (<i>NewMysteryReader.com</i>)<br /><br />The fifth English Garden Mystery (see The Water Lily Cross and The Trial of the Wild Rose) is an entertaining whodunit as the past and the present converge during Kingston's amateur sleuthing. The cast is solid in support of the protagonist who is at his best working the enigmatic murder case. The story line is fast-paced with a fascinating brief afterward explaining the code in further depth. Gardens of Secret Past is wonderful mystery as events two centuries old still remain relevant. (<i>followtheclue.wordpress.com</i>)<br /><br />A charming English mystery that is well-written and entertaining. RECOMMENDED. (<i>www.iloveamysterynewsletter.com</i>)<br /><br />The combination of gardening with mystery thrown in is a nice change of scenery and will appeal even to those who don't have a green thumb. (<i>British Weekly</i>)<br /><br />His is a talent in full bloom. (<i>Richmond Times-Dispatch on The Lost Gardens</i>)<br /><br />Lawrence Kingston once again mixes horticulture with crime solving in Eglin's agreeable second cozy to feature the retired botany professor...it's the plethora of gardening detail that makes this a memorable read. (<i>Publishers Weekly on The Lost Gardens</i>)<br /><br />The primary appeal of the Kingston series is its detailed treatment of a subject dear to the hearts of many cozy fans: English gardens. (<i>Booklist on The Lost Gardens</i>)<br /><br /><i>The Blue Rose </i>is one of those amiable mysteries that seek to mildly educate as well as to entertain: Here readers learn something about the history of roses while watching the hero and heroine dodge bullets and pruning shears. (<i>The Washington Post on The Blue Rose</i>)
zlib_text: The Garden Plot is a work of �ction. Names, characters, places, and
  incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used
  �ctitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
  living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
  An Alibi eBook Original
  Copyright © 2014 by Martha Wingate
  All Rights Reserved.
  Published in the United States by Alibi, an imprint of Random House, a division of
  Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
  ALIBI and colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC.
  eBook ISBN 978-0-8041-7770-2
  Cover art and design: Scott Biel
  www.readalibi.com
  v3.1
  
  Contents
  Cover
  Title Page
  Copyright
  Prologue
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  Chapter 9
  Chapter 10
  Chapter 11
  Chapter 12
  Chapter 13
  Chapter 14
  Chapter 15
  Chapter 16
  Dedication
  Acknowledgments
  About the Author
  
  Prologue
  He couldn’t stay away. The thought of what lay beneath the earthen
  �oor had consumed him for months. He’d let it slip only on