Elizabeth Glendinning QC has lost faith in the legal system to which she has given her life. In an attempt to restore it, she has secretly devised a scheme to bring a guilty man back to court -- Graham Riley, whom she had successfully defended some ten years previously. As part of an elaborate contingency plan, Elizabeth leaves the unsuspecting Anselm with a key to a safety deposit box, to be opened in the event of her death. Three weeks later she is found dead in the East End of London. Once the box has been opened, a chain of events is triggered as if from beyond the grave, and Anselm is led to fulfil what Elizabeth has begun. THE GARDENS OF THE DEAD is the second, thrilling outing for William Broderick's detective Anselm.