The Forgotten Garden

This was an actual, real, decent book that I read (especially after all the sludge lately). Yet another historical mystery, it was well written, intrguing and had
more to offer than straight up escapism.

It centred around the story of a small girl who is abandoned on a ship to Australia from England in 1913. Upon her arrival, she is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife, and raised as their own.

The book jumps around in time, from 1900 all the way to 2005, with various dates in between. This story of family and betrayal, told through the search of a woman for the real story of her grandmother's history was actually pretty riveting, and I was right with it for pretty much the entire thing.

That isn't to say it didn't have it's faults - it ran a bit long and could definitely have used a bit of trimming. Overall, I enjoyed this book and read it a lot faster than anything else in the last little while. Maybe this is the key, read actual good books instead of tripe - you end up reading more.

Regardless, good read, a bit more dense than the past few and I didn't have the mystery figured out until the end. I give it 4 creepy hair-filled Victorian brooches out of 5.