Product Description

Michael Roman is finally living the life he always dreamed of - he has a successful career, a beautiful wife and adorable twin daughters. But his idyllic life is about to come crashing down around him - because Michael is a man with a past. A rising star in the New York District Attorney's office and on the cusp of enormous success, Michael's perfect life begins to unravel when he finds himself the target of a depraved madman, a man who covets everything Michael has and will stop at nothing to take it all away. In a desperate fight to survive, Michael is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past in order to save his family. He must hunt down the psychopath who is targeting his family and, before it is too late, face the devil himself...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13176 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Richard Montanari is the Top Ten Sunday Times bestselling author of Play Dead, The Rosary Girls, The Skin Gods and Broken Angels, as well as the internationally acclaimed thrillers Kiss of Evil, Deviant Way and The Violet Hour. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Richard Montanari - The Devils Garden
Michael Roman is finally living the life he always dreamed of -- he has a successful career, a beautiful wife and adorable twin daughters. But his idyllic life is about to come crashing down around him - because Michael is a man with a past. A rising star in the New York District Attorney's office and on the cusp of enormous success, Michael's perfect life begins to unravel when he finds himself the target of a depraved madman, a man who covets everything Michael has and will stop at nothing to take it all away.

In a desperate fight to survive, Michael is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past in order to save his family. He must hunt down the psychopath who is targeting his family and, before it is too late, face the devil himself...

This is a standalone thriller that is almost painfully slow to begin with and doesnt really get going until about a hundred or so pages in. The writing is good and the story line has a good amount of twists which I have come to expect from a Montanari story but there's just something missing. The characters seem a bit flat and as I was expecting a more police procedural style novel I was surprised by The Devil's Garden slightly supernatural element.

All in all not a bad read and readers unfamiliar with Montanari's previous work should be sufficiently impressed. However to those who have read and enjoyed his Philadelphia set Byrne & Balzano series it's unfortunately a bit of a let down. The story, characters and even the plot twists are most definately not up to scratch for Montanari.

THE DEVILS GARDEN
The Devils Garden - at last the long wait was over - i had the latest Montanari book - couldnt wait to read it - was it worth the wait? sadly - no - i dont think so.

The story centres around successful New York lawyer - Michael Roman, his wife and their 4 year old adopted twin daughters.

The girls were twins from a set of triplets (the 3rd was stillborn) born to a local 16 year old girl in a remote village in Estonia, she was the local 'soothsayer' she died a violent death the night of their birth. - their father a local man, named Aleksander Savisaar.who believed himself to be a 'Koschei' - an immortal, who according to Estonian folklore - is a being, who lives forever. He was enraged when he found out the girls had been adopted and vowed to find them and take them back to Estonia - their rightful home.

He discovers they are in New York and sets off to reclaim them ......

Although the book is well written - the prose and descriptions are clearly up to Mr. Montanaris usual high standard and evil and darkness pervade throughout the chapters - i cannot honestly say i though the book was anywhere near as good as his previous ones, indeed i would go so far as to say this is his weakest effort yet, as soon as i read the opening chapter, my heart sank, as i just knew how the story would go, as it has been done before, in varying degrees by other authors.

I was so excited when i got the book, after such a long wait, couldnt wait to read it, sadly it did not reach my expecatations, a really dissapointing read.

A bit of a let down
The Devils Garden - Richard Montanari

Synopsis

Michael Roman and Abby Roman and their 4 year old twin daughters are just a normal working family living in suburbia. Their peace is destroyed when a lawyer is tortured to death. This lawyer is known to them. He worked illegimate adoption of their twin daughters from Estonia, the birth place of Michael's parents. The twins' biological family wants his daughters, who were snatched from their mother's bed, back. This psychopath will stop at nothing to get them back. Believing he can live forever he needs them to make this happen. He goes on a killing spree across the city. A NYPD detective is looking into the murder of the lawyer and is lead to Michael and his family. Will Michael and his family survive or will the psychopath get what's rightfully his.

My Opinion

This was a stand alone book of Richard Montanari. The first since the Balzano and Byrne series and I didn't know what to expect, and for me it wasn't as great as his previous books. I am normally sitting at the edge of my seat and shouting at anyone who interrupts. But with this book I could get that normal flow of reading. Yes there were gruesome torture scenes that Montanari writes so well. But it was the characters that just didn't do it for me. I hope he goes back to the Balzano and Byrne series as they were thoroughly entertaining.

I would give this 3 out of 5.