The Detective’s Garden: A Love Story and Meditation on Murder

Set in 1995, this leisurely yet convoluted thriller from Stefan-Cole (Hollywood Boulevard) opens with the philosophical musings of retired police detective Emil Milosec as he sits alone one June night in the garden of his Brooklyn house. He ponders the Garden of Eden and original sin (“Did Adam perform—not too fast, not too slow? Did Eve respond with all she had?”). The garden was a passion of Emil’s late wife, Elena, for whom he still grieves. When a severed finger turns up in the garden, Emil’s suspicions fall on his usually drunken neighbor, Franco Montoya. Clues hint at a shadowy real estate plot as gentrification sweeps into the neighborhood. Or could the finger have something to do with Emil’s long ago trip to Slovenia, the old country, where he met Elena? Crime fans can delight in mulling over all angles with Emil as the plot spirals toward a truly surprising revelation. (Sept.)