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Summary
Summary
A new novel of insidious secrets and chilling revelations surrounding a mysterious cult--the latest gripping psychological thriller from Alex Marwood
When nearly one hundred members of The Ark, a sinister apocalypse cult are found dead by poison at their isolated community in North Wales, those left alive are scattered to the winds with few coping skills and fewer answers. For twenty-three-year-old Romy, who has never known life outside the compound, learning how to live in a world she has been taught to fear is terrifying.
Now Romy must start a new life for herself--and the child growing inside her. She is determined to find the rest of her family and keep her baby safe, no matter the cost. But as the horrors of her past start to resurface, she realizes that leaving her old life behind won't be easy. Outside the walls of The Ark, the real evil has only just begun.
A brilliantly plotted, page-turning novel from "one of psychological suspense's best writers" ( The Boston Globe ), The Poison Garden will leave you stunned.
Author Notes
Alex Marwood is the pseudonym of a journalist who has worked extensively across the British press. Her first novel, The Wicked Girls , won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and was nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel and the Anthony and ITW Awards for Best Paperback Original. The Killer Next Door , her second novel, won a Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel, was nominated for the Anthony and Barry, and has been optioned for film by James Franco and Ahna O'Reilly. Her third novel, The Darkest Secret , was published in 2016. Marwood lives in south London.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Romy, the 21-year-old protagonist of this creepy psychological thriller from Edgar-winner Marwood (The Darkest Secret), is the only adult survivor found at the site of the mass death of more than a hundred people at the messianic doomsday cult, the Ark, in North Wales. She tries to keep her pregnancy secret as she transitions to the outside world, where she seeks out her teenage half-siblings, Ilo and Eden, the latter a child of the cult's patriarch, Lucien Blake, and thus possibly destined to become the One. The narrative alternates between Romy's sinister efforts to reconnect with family and provide for her unborn child's future, and the experiences of her mother, Somer, who joined the Ark when Romy was a child. Marwood makes life inside the controlling and Spartan survivalist compound appear simultaneously appalling and idyllic, leaving the reader feeling revolted, but just a bit complicit. The dangling plot line at the end leaves the story feeling less complete than it should. Hopefully, a sequel will provide some resolution. Agent: Laetitia Rutherford, Watson, Little (U.K.). (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
After what looks like a mass suicide on the grounds of a cult's commune in Wales, the three known survivors are forced into modern British life in this psychological thriller.Romy, pregnant and almost 21, and her two half siblings, Eden, 15, and Ilo, 13, are the only survivors found alive in Plas Golauhome of the Ark communewhen an ungodly stench leads the authorities to the grounds. More than a hundred people have died from poisoning, their bodies rotting in the sun where they fell as they sought help. As the only adult survivor, Romy's progression from suspect to the freedom of her own small apartment takes months. But despite her willingness to pretend otherwise for the authorities, her true goal is not to assimilate into a world she has been catechized her entire life to believe will soon end. She must find her siblings, who have been placed with her mother's sister, Sarah, and return to the safety of the cult in its second location, in Scotland, one that the authorities know nothing about. There are some gruesome tasks she must undertake first, however, and she performs these with alacrity. The reader discovers what led to the cult members' demise as the dark and twisting story jumps back and forth among times, places, and people, covering the 20 years that Romy grew up within the Ark, training for survival and preparing for the end of the world. A confusing mass of detail at the beginning of the book settles into a disturbing exploration of religious fervor and how belief can be used to justify the worst impulses of humankind. Author Marwood (The Darkest Secret, 2016, etc.) has a deft touch in this pre-apocalyptic tale.A gripping, unexpected novel with graphic elements that are not for the faint of heart. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
An extraordinary novel of psychological suspense that is more wicked than Marwood's Edgar-winning Wicked Girls (2013) and darker than her Macavity-winning The Killer Next Door (2014). Romy has been raised at the Ark, a Jim Jones-like cult in an isolated community in North Wales whose members are anxiously awaiting an apocalypse that will destroy everyone on the planet except them. An inner rivalry results in the mass poisoning of all but a few of its members, Romy and her younger brother and sister among them. The three end up in the care of their somewhat unstable aunt, who tries to assimilate them into the real world. Still shaken by the cruelty and deprivation of the Ark, they remain fearful and uncomfortable, and, even though some progress appears to be made, Romy has her own evil secret agenda. Pregnant with the child of the cult's leader, whose sexual exploitation of the cult's women resulted in many children, all of whom have a suspiciously high attrition rate, she is determined to eliminate any threats to her baby, whom she believes will be the savior of the world. Two of Marwood's novels have already been optioned for film, and this one would make an eerie docudrama that could rival The Blair Witch Project.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2010 Booklist
