In a note left for her husband, author Virginia Woolf wrote, "I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I can't recover this time."

Then, in 1941, when she was 59 years of age, the famous but deeply troubled writer stuffed rocks into her pockets and drowned herself in the River Ouse. Her body was recovered three weeks later.

Stephanie Barron takes this sad event and reconstructs an alternative scenario for what occurred to Woolf in this intriguing mystery that will hold the reader spellbound from start to finish.

It is 2008 when the novel opens and Jo Bellamy is visiting Sissinghurst Castle to see the famous White Garden created by Vita Sackville-West. The American has a wealthy client who wants her to recreate the garden, so this is not just a pleasure trip.

Besides seeing the garden up close and personal, Jo is recovering from the shock of her grandfather's suicide. She also wants to see the place where something happened to the man during World War II that left an inexorable mark on him for the remainder of his life.

While poking around the garden, Jo finds a disturbing discovery—a notebook that she suspects might be Woolf's last personal journal. With the first entry dated one day after the writer supposedly drowned, the diary—if authenticated—could create a firestorm of speculation about what really happened to the writer.

In an attempt to discover the truth about Woolf and her grandfather's apparent encounter with the author, Jo embarks on a harrowing journey that will shed new light on an event that may not really have been a private act of defiance, but something entirely different and totally more sinister!

If you enjoy thrillers with a bit of "literary content", you'll definitely wish to venture into The White Garden with Jo Bellamy!