Mills, Mark 1963–

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Mills, Mark 1963–

PERSONAL:

Born 1963.

ADDRESSES:

Home—England.

CAREER:

Novelist and screenwriter.

AWARDS, HONORS:

John Creasey Memorial Dagger, BBC Audio Books, 2004, for Amagansett.

WRITINGS:

Amagansett (novel), Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

The Savage Garden (novel), Putnam (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of screenplays, including The Reckoning.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mark Mills depicts life along the eastern tip of Long Island so successfully in his debut novel, Amagansett, that readers were surprised to learn that he didn't grow up there. In fact, he didn't even make his first visit to Amagansett until he was in his twenties, but the area so impressed him that he decided to make it the setting of his first novel. Hailed as a literate and thrilling murder mystery, Amagansett begins when a wealthy young woman whose family summers in the town is found dead. The action takes place in the late 1940s, as Amagansett's fishing community and Native American residents find themselves in a struggle to preserve their way of life against the onslaught of new wealth from the city. Two men team up to solve the crime: the Basque fisherman who found the body (and was having an affair with the victim), and a cynical police detective with a troubled past. A writer for Kirkus Reviews commended the novel for the "superb detail" of its setting, and noted that there is "not a cliche in sight." In Booklist, Bill Ott praised the skill with which Mills blends Long Island history into the story, concluding that "This is a novel to savor."

The Savage Garden, a mystery set in post-World War II Tuscany, drew similarly enthusiastic reviews. The novel focuses on art historian Adam Strickland, a Cambridge University undergraduate who is invited to the Villa Docci to study its Renaissance garden. He becomes intrigued by its owner, Signora Francesca Docci, and by the mystery surrounding the sudden death in 1577 of Flora, wife of the first owner. He is also increasingly puzzled by the circumstances under which Signora Docci's oldest son, Emilio, was shot by German troops. Pondering the secrets of Emilio's death, Adam discovers that the garden itself provides clues. Library Journal reviewer Susan Clifford Braun called the novel a "deftly plotted and suspenseful" story set in a "marvelously sensual locale." Barry Forshaw, writing in the London Independent, hailed The Savage Garden as a "mesmerising piece of writing" in which "iridescent" prose and a hauntingly mysterious plot are combined in a "striking tapestry." In the London Guardian, Laura Wilson wrote that The Savage Garden is "just as fascinating as [Mills's] magnificent first novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2004, Bill Ott, review of Amagansett, p. 1907; March 15, 2007, Bill Ott, review of The Savage Garden, p. 30.

Guardian (London, England), November 13, 2004, Colin Greenland, review of Amagansett; March 24, 2007, Laura Wilson, review of The Savage Garden.

Independent (London, England), March 7, 2007, Barry Forshaw, review of The Savage Garden.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2004, review of Amagansett, p. 652; March 1, 2007, review of The Savage Garden, p. 198.

Library Journal, July 2004, Susan Clifford Braun, review of Amagansett, p. 72; March 1, 2007, Susan Clifford Braun, review of The Savage Garden, p. 75.

Publishers Weekly, July 12, 2004, review of Amagansett, p. 44; March 5, 2007, review of The Savage Garden, p. 37.

School Library Journal, January, 2005, Molly Connally, review of Amagansett, p. 159.