Garden of Lies

By: Amanda Quick

Narrated by: Louise Jane Underwood

The New York Times best-selling author of Otherwise Engaged and The Mystery Woman presents an all-new novel of intrigue and murder set against the backdrop of Victorian London.

The Kern Secretarial Agency provides reliable professional services to its wealthy clientele, and Anne Clifton was one of the finest women in Ursula Kern's employ. But Miss Clifton has met an untimely end - and Ursula is convinced it was not due to natural causes.

Archaeologist and adventurer Slater Roxton thinks Mrs. Kern is off her head to meddle in such dangerous business. Nevertheless, he seems sensible enough to Ursula, though she does find herself unnerved by his self-possession and unreadable green-gold eyes. If this mysterious widowed beauty insists on stirring the pot, Slater intends to remain close by as they venture into the dark side of polite society.

Together they must reveal the identity of a killer - and to achieve their goal they may need to reveal their deepest secrets to each other as well.

©2015 Jayne Ann Krentz (P)2015 Recorded Books

Easy to listen to

There were too many repetitions of themes from earlier books by Amanda Quick.

Jayne Krentz is a good writer as much as I always look forward to her new releases she may need to take a break and renew her creative energy.

Just okay

I generally like Amanda Quick (JAK, JC, whatever name she decides to write under). Her stories do all follow a similar path at this point, but that's fine too since it's a path I enjoy. This book however was just annoying. I didn't connect with Ursula. Her character was far more up tight than a normal AQ character - which, it's the Victorian Era so maybe she wasn't? but AQ generally puts very modern day heroines in even her period books... and I really didn't like how Ursuala seemed to want Slater to read her mind. It was so immature and kind of mean. Not something normally found in this author's writing.
But the story itself was decent and I liked Slater and all of the supporting cast. This narrator isn't my favorite but she isn't the worst - although she sounded as if she was shouting whenever an American talked. that was weird. Although maybe that explains how the narrator did The Woman Who Knew Too Much - it was maybe the worst audio book ever.
All in all, this isn't the worst AQ book (side eye - Surrender), but it's nowhere near some of my favorites (Ravished, Dangerous, The Paid Companion, The River Knows, and most of the Burning Cove books).

Good Story... Good Narration... kept me guessing

Unlike others who reviewed this book I had no problem with the narrators' voice... yes it was in the higher register but it was not unpleasant or jarring to the ears.... if you want unpleasant ie fingernails on chalkboard, go watch walt disney's original "snow white" (talk about painful)

the voice of the narrator seemed to be the most anyone had bad to say about the story... Alright I didn't particularly like the new york accent for Mr Cobb...but it was ok and different enough to distinguish him from the other characters which in the end is what matters most to me in an audio book


i will say it was a good story, well written with lots of spunk (as usual). The bad guys were obvious almost from the start but the #1 villain was a guess... JAK/Amanda Quick did an excellent job of misdirection as well as leaving subtle clues as to who the real culprit was and what their individual motive was in the story... i love to guess, and am usually right... and was this time...but my guess waivered from time to time (good misdirection. and side paths)

all in all an excellent example of romantic/ murder mystery... i recommend this book

*note this book was very reminiscent of some of her earlier books ... wicked widow, lie by moonlight... don't look back (series), etc.

Horrible Narrator Great Story

I could not believe this narrator, I could hardly listen to this story. I love Amanda Quick, Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle and I tried and tried to listen since I do enjoy her books and often listen to them alot more than once but Louise Jane Underwood in this particular venue is just awful!!! Eventually I just got our my kindle and read the store which I thought was very enjoyable. Why would Recorded Books re-record books that had already been recorded i.e. Lie by Moonlight which Anne Flosnik recorded and was Very good just don't understand how this person could have been given this book to read in Audio. Her voice is not pleasant in your ears. UGH! If you can get past the narrator the story is good.

Good enough

A formularistic Amanda Quick book, falls in line with her recent ones. I liked her earlier books better