It wasn't the garden's fault. No, the garden itself was beautiful.

This serene escaped from the tension, spoken and silent, inside that looming stone farmhouse.

How inviting it was out here.

Flowing greens, small riots of flowered color,

a small patch of American Eden.

Oh, but what happened here?

Like a violation in the dead of night?

Who were those two figures, barely visible in the moonlight,

speaking in hushed and urgent tones.

She, young, beautiful, charming.

He, older, wild-eyed, and intense.

Exactly what passed between them, no one else knew.

And yet, their garden meeting planted seeds.

And those seeds grew into jealousy, betrayal, a vanishing, and a sentence of death.

I'm Keith Morrison, and this is season three of Morrison Mysteries.

Our story begins far from that American garden. It's the mid-1800s, London. Our narrator is the young attorney, Philip LeFrank. He is driven, ambitious, and so overworked, he is collapsed. Slow down, the doctor will tell him, take a relaxing trip. So,

Philip decides to see some distant relatives in America, where he'll soon visit that beautiful garden.

Here now is The Dead Alive by Wilkie Collins.

Chapter Chapter 1. The Sick Man Hard all right, said the doctor.

Lung's all right. No organic disease that I can discover.

Philip LeFrank, don't alarm yourself.

You're not going to die yet.

...