Clara’s Verdict
Poison Garden is the twenty-second DCI Ryan mystery, and it opens from a startling position: most of the world believes Ryan is dead, killed by an assassin’s rifle in his own home, when in truth another man took the bullet meant for him. That single decision, to keep Ryan in the shadows while his team works on without him, gives the book an unusual and rather thrilling shape.
Ross splits her narrative between Ryan’s enforced exile in Devon and a poisoning case back in Northumberland, and the tension between the two settings drives the story. At eight hours it has room to breathe, and the clock ticking over Ryan’s borrowed time lends a real edge. Reviewers rightly note that it works best as the second half of the story begun in Death Rocks, and I would take that advice.
It is a bold, propulsive entry that trusts its long-standing readers to relish a change of formula.
Appearing to kill off your hero twenty-two books into a series is a bold move, and it pays off handsomely. Keeping Ryan in the shadows forces the rest of the team to step forward, and the Devon interludes give the familiar Northumberland procedural an unexpected jolt of tension. It is precisely the sort of risk that keeps a long-running series alive, and it left me newly curious about characters I thought I already knew inside out.
About the Audiobook
The twenty-second book in The DCI Ryan Mysteries, Poison Garden finds the stakes higher than ever. Most of the world thinks Ryan is dead, and as long as he stays that way, sheltering at his parents’ home in Devon, there is a chance to expose the people behind a deadly killing network. His secret cannot hold forever, and time is against him.
Back in Northumberland, his team are called to investigate the mysterious death of a man in Alnwick who collapsed within yards of its mediaeval castle. When a second person is rushed to hospital with the same symptoms, her life hangs in the balance unless they can identify the toxic substance that is killing her, and for DCs Lowerson and Reed there is only one place to look for inspiration, the Poison Garden. Romance and humour thread through this fast-paced whodunnit set against the spectacular Northumbrian landscape.
The Narration
The split structure of Poison Garden asks a little more of its narrator, and across eight hours Jonathan Keeble handles the movement between Ryan’s tense seclusion in Devon and the poisoning inquiry in the north-east with clean, confident transitions. The sense of Ryan chafing on borrowed time is one of the book’s pleasures, and Keeble voices that frustration well.
With Ryan sidelined for stretches, younger members of the team carry more of the load, and Keeble gives Lowerson and Reed the space to step forward. His steady pacing keeps both strands legible, so the listener never loses the thread of a story deliberately pulled in two directions.
Keeble’s task here is to hold two moods at once, the claustrophobia of Ryan’s hiding place and the urgency of the poisoning inquiry back home, and he manages the alternation without ever letting the listener lose their bearings. The younger detectives are handed more of the load, and he voices their growing confidence with evident enjoyment, giving the audiobook a freshness that a straight continuation might have lacked.
What Readers Say
Poison Garden holds an average of 4.6 stars from 28 ratings. JenMedBookLover, at five stars, called it another absolute belter, full of mystery, threat and chemistry of both the scientific and the romantic kind, while sensibly advising listeners to read its predecessor first. Dawn G agreed, noting that Death Rocks sets the scene and is best taken before this one.
A four-star reviewer described it as a good conclusion to the previous book and admitted to finding it possibly more enjoyable than Death Rocks, though she felt the two might have worked well combined into a single volume. Another fan simply relished Ryan and Phillips and their banter within a satisfyingly complex story. The reviews line up behind a strong, tightly connected two-part tale.
The clearest message from the reviews is a practical one: start with Death Rocks. Read as the second half of a two-part story, Poison Garden plainly satisfies, and more than one reviewer felt the pair might even have worked as a single volume. Taken in the right order, it lands as one of the stronger recent entries, and the enthusiasm of the regulars for this closing half is unmistakable.
Who Should Listen?
Poison Garden is for committed listeners who enjoy a series willing to upend its own formula, and especially for anyone who has just finished Death Rocks and wants the resolution. It is emphatically not a starting point. If a detective presumed dead and a case rooted in a real poison garden intrigue you, you can Listen to Poison Garden on Audible and watch Ryan work from the shadows.
