The Gardens

 

The Gardens by Emma Babbington
6/18/26; 336 pages
HQ/HarperCollins 

The Gardens by Emma Babbington is a highly recommended psychological thriller following bones found in a garden and a story that is told through two timelines, past and present. 

Thirty-four years ago, in 1992, Jess McIntyre's eighteen-year-old sister, Nina, disappeared, and was presumed dead. Now Jess, who lives in Australia, receives the news that bones have been found under the shed in the garden of her childhood London home and they are though the be Nina's. Jess and her fifteen-year-old son Ollie, return to London to give DNA samples to the police and finally clean-up and sell the home since her mother is now living with them after her father died. Jess can also provide the police information on what she remembers at that time when she was sixteen and Nina disappeared.

Alternating chapters go back in time and follow a cult, Chisledown, up to the time of Nina's disappearance. Chisledown is lead by Mary, who adopted the children she brought in and purported that they were a learning community, but, as expected in any cult in a novel, that was not the case. As time went on, Mary became more of a dictator, manipulating everything to suit her. An unnamed male narrator tells the readers the events of Chisledown. Eventually the two story lines have a connection.

This is a well-written thriller that starts out at an even pace, with new information disclosed later in the plot which allows the pace and subsequent tension to quickly pick up. Jess is recalling events from years ago, so her memories are that of a younger sister. She does remember a group of young squatters in the house next door and how they all became friends with Nina. This piecemeal memory leads to more information and connections that the police didn't make, or apparently try to unravel, thirty-four years earlier. 

Generally, I'm not a fan of novels that use cults as a device to move the plot forward. The connections to Chisledown and Nina's disappearance are not immediately apparent, so those chapters early on in the novel actually, for me, detracted from the present day concern over the identification of the bones and the reopening of Nina's case. I had no reason to care as I was there to read a psychological thriller and discover the identity of bones found on a property.

Jess is a believable, sympathetic character who has been placed into an extremely stressful situation. She has been living in Australia for years, is a widow, and is raising her son alone. Her mother moved down under a couple years earlier. Now she is revisiting her grief from years earlier, which opens up all the emotions again, and she wants closure and an answer to what happened to Nina. Ollie is written as a typical teen. The other supporting characters, including the neighbor and police, are all believable. 

As everything begins to be revealed and connected, the pace picks up, along with the suspense, tension, and sense of dread. With all the twists and new revelations toward the end of the novel, it does become a more compelling read. Some of the twists may be predicted ahead of time, but several will be a surprise.

The Gardens is a good choice for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers and will appreciate a tie in to a cult in the plot. Thanks to HQ/HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.