Summer, 1765. The renowned portrait painter Joshua Pope is eager to escape London and his unhappy past and accepts a commission to paint a wedding portrait for Herbert Bentnick and his bride-to-be, Sabine Mercier. Joshua learns that the couple are avid horticulturalists. Bentnick's country house, Astley, in Richmond, is famous for its verdant gardens, designed by the master landscape artist Capability Brown. Sabine Mercier, who has lived most of her life in the Indies, is an expert in growing pineapples, the fruit of choice at the grandest dinner parties and an inspiration to artists and craftsmen. But soon after Sabine begins to cultivate pineapples in the vast conservatory at Astley, she discovers a body among her plants. Why, wonders Joshua Pope, is so little attention paid to this bizarre death? Why do Bentnick's children regard their future stepmother with suspicion and fear? And what connection does Sabine's daughter Violet have with the dead man? Outraged that any life can be valued so lightly, Joshua begins to investigate the death. But then Sabine's valuable emerald necklace disappears, and he is implicated. His need to discover what has happened at Astley suddenly becomes more pressing. Can Joshua solve the mystery before his reputation is ruined? And, more immediately, can he stay alive long enough to do so?Following her acclaimed d but, THE GRENADILLO BOX, Janet Gleeson has written another compelling tale of murder and mystery set in an exquisitely and authentically rendered Georgian England.
It is summer in 1795
and the renowned artist Joshua Pope, eager to escape London, accepts a commission to paint a wedding portrait for the well-to-do Herbert Bentnick and his betrothed, Sabine Mercier.
Astley, Bentnick's country house, is famous for its verdant gardens designed by the master landscape artist Capability Brown, and Joshua learns that his patrons are avid horticulturalists. Sabine Mercier, who has lived in the Indies, is an expert in growing pineapples, the fruit of choice at the grandest dinner parties and an inspiration to artists and craftsmen.
And it is while tending these exotic plants in the conservatory at Astley that Sabine stumbles across the body. Both puzzled and outraged by the lack of concern about this bizarre death, Joshua feels duty bound to investigate? Why do Bentnick's children regard their future stepmother with suspicion and fear? And what is the connection between Sabine's own daughter and the dead man?
And when Joshua's implicated in the mysterious disappearance of a valuable emerald necklace, he finds himself fighting not only to clear his name, but also to stay alive...
