CANDY HOUSE 6-34-X62116A and why is the garden

and why is the garden strewn with dead plants and insects

Also on the case is a charismatic true-crime author who sees patterns the detectives miss

It is professionally designed and easy to use

often homeless

Tough exterior but a heart of gold

CANDY HOUSE 6-34-X62116A and why is the gardenThe Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is ''one of those tech demi gods with whom we're all on a first name basis.'' Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or ''externalizing'' memory. It's 2010. Within a decade, Bix's new technology,