The Dark Rose

Starred review from December 12, 2011
British author Kelly follows her powerful debut, The Poison Tree (2011), with another stunning novel of psychological suspense. When Paul Seaforth meets garden designer Louisa Trevelyan at a garden restoration site in Warwickshire, where the authorities have sent him for safety until he can testify against a friend at a murder trial, Louisa reacts to him with shock. Paul resembles Adam Glasslake, a charismatic musician with whom she was once violently obsessed. Paul, who later becomes Louisa’s secret lover, hopes to give her closure by discovering Adam’s fate, but his plans explode when his own past finds him. The title, which alludes to the way a new rose won’t bloom where an old one has died, perfectly evokes the story’s theme: unhealed damage inevitably stunts fresh growth. With its rich intertwining of viewpoints and time frames, its nuances of character and class, its sustained suspense and its gothic/contemporary fusion, this harrowing novel is a work of true talent. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta.

January 1, 2012
A second novel from British journalist Kelly (The Poison Tree, 2011). Young Louisa Trevelyan was a Goth girl who frustrated her upper-class parents. With no thoughts of moving on to college, Louisa came and went as she pleased, working in a stall at Kensington Market selling aromatic oils, drinking and sneaking a different guy into her room (which is set off from the main house) each night. Then she meets Adam, the beautiful lead singer for a group known as Glasslake. Louisa is immediately captivated by the sexy bad boy who keeps his past hidden and is devastated by their arguments and his flirtatious nature. Kelly weaves in the tale of Paul Seaforth, a young man who loses his father at an early age to a terrible accident. The chapters, which span a 20-year range, tell the back stories simultaneously while chronicling the characters' lives in 2009, when both are working to reconstruct a heritage garden. Paul, who has an uncanny resemblance to Adam, is preparing to go to court and testify against his former best friend, a man who has been both his protector and burden. The author is a careful chronicler, but the earlier chapters are somewhat confusing and not as engaging as they could be, particularly when she delves into horticultural minutiae. The pace picks up about a third of the way through, and that's where the characters turn engaging, if not always sympathetic. A solid psychological thriller that provides readers with a harrowing look into the violent pasts of a pair of characters who have everything to lose and know it.

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October 1, 2011

Forced into petty theft that ended gruesomely in murder, 19-year-old Paul testified against a bullying friend to avoid prison. Louisa works to restore a faded Elizabethan garden while suppressing an infatuation that ended badly. But Paul brings it all back (he looks markedly like the man who wrecked Louisa's life), and the two start a secret affair. Too bad the past intervenes. Kelly made a name for herself with The Poison Tree; get this follow-up wherever twisty suspense is popular.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2011
Kelly follows up her outstanding debut (The Poison Tree, 2010) with another suspenseful tale that keeps the reader on edge until the last page. Quiet and troubled teenager Paul has become tangled up with hooligan Daniel, and the two of them get rich selling scrap metal they've ripped off from construction sites around Essex. When a run goes bad, leaving a man dead, Paul rats out Daniel in exchange for community service. He's placed with a social-services group renovating a public garden, where he meets the mysterious Louisa. Louisa is tormented by her past; as a goth teen, her volatile relationship with a musician ended badly, and she's blamed herself for the past 20 years. Despite their age difference, Paul and Louisa start an affair. Trying to hide their relationship while escaping their pasts proves to be too challenging for the lovers; a bad end seems inevitable, but there is considerable tension as it approaches. Reminiscent of early Ruth Rendell, Kelly is a master at teasing her readers by doling out just enough backstory, a little bit at a time, to keep the suspense high.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)