In A Dark Garden - Good Old Reads

In A Dark Garden - Slaughter - First Edition - Doubleday & Co. - 1946

In A Dark Garden is one of those books that won’t stay with you long, but is entertaining enough to see through to the end—something akin to a B-movie from the 1950s.

High Point: An interesting and diverse plot set during the American Civil War.

Low Point: The romantic bits are awkward, overly dramatic, and frankly, a little embarrassing.

Author: Frank Slaughter

Publication Date: 1946

Genre: Fiction – War

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In A Dark Garden by Frank G. Slaughter is one of those books that won’t stay with you long, but is entertaining enough to see through to the end—something akin to a B-movie from the 1950s.

The story centers on a Southern blue-blood physician who serves in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Spanning the period from 1862 through the end of the war, we follow the lead character from Scotland through the Caribbean to the Deep South.

Offering few surprises, the plot is still engaging enough to keep you reading further. The battle scenes are descriptive, and the medical procedures are credible (at least to the lay person). The romantic bits are a bit awkward and overly dramatic—almost embarrassing—but were probably rather forward when the book was published in 1946.

Slaughter was a talented and prolific author, publishing novels from 1941 to 1987. In A Dark Garden exhibits Slaughter’s diversity. He’s in the war in the south in the mid-19^th century here. But the next novel you read may be in a New England psychiatric hospital in the 1950s, or maybe in Texas in the 1970s working on the space race.

If you are a Slaughter fan, you will probably like this book. If you are not familiar with his works, you should consider taking a stroll In A Dark Garden.