Paging the Dead

A Family History Mystery #1

by Brynn Bonner

When a professional genealogist who teaches classes in family history scrapbooking is implicated in the murder of her client, she starts her own investigation to clear her name—and avoid jail!

Genealogist Sophie McClure spends much of her time researching the histories of families. With the help of her business partner and medium, Esme Sabatier, she is able to achieve extraordinary results in tracing family histories, which she translates into archival-scrapbooking. When one of their clients ends up dead and the evidence in the crime scene points to them, Sophie and Esme are immediately suspected of foul play. To clear their names they need to channel all of their investigative efforts—with the help of their scrapbooking club—into finding a murderer.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2013

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I promised myself I would never read another American cozy mystery again after this one.

"Paging the Dead" kind of crept up on me by stealth because instead of quilting or cupcakes, the mystery is coated with genealogy. But, honestly! When the main character can't see what is in front of her nose (and the readers') until the final chapter, it gets plain annoying.

Let's just call this bad judgement on my part... I will pat myself on the back for slogging on to the end, and try not to get taken for a ride again!

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up a little since I love the opening paragraph and the humor scattered throughout this book. Friends Sophreena and Esme run a combination genealogy and scrapbook business, researching customers' ancestors and creating (or helping them to create) scrapbook containing family records. But when their latest customer, town grande dame Dorothy Pritchett Proctor dies just before they finish their project for her, the two become the prime suspects, so Sophreena puts her research skills to work to try to solve the mystery.

[Linda Smatzny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story premise of using genealogy as the occupation of the main character, Sophreena McClure. Some red herrings along the way but good story. The book was a quick easy read.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written book

As a genealogists I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Took me forever to figure out "who done it", and the final twist was surprising. But, who and how were Ingrid and Dorothy sisters? The family story and telling were very well done, the humor in the telling was delightful.

[Britt, Book Habitue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.
Spotted the killer immediately upon being introduced to the character. The paranormal aspect was a random tangent that seemed totally superfluous... until it suddenly held all the answers.
Overall, it was an okay story, but I'm not impressed.

[Debye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good genealogy mystery---I liked the additional detail of what genealogists actually do.

[Robynne Lozier · Rating 4 out of 5]

The code NPE in the genealogy world refers to a "non parental event" which basically means the legal father is not the biological father. I have 2 NPE's in my own family. As you can tell, I LOVE Genealogy!!

This story is set around a family that founded their local town in North Carolina, back before the revolutionary war, but some rumours have arisen thatt they now want to have buried. For this family, it would be a huge scandal to discover that they were not who they assumed they were. So when the founding family asks the genealogists to dig into the family tree and make very sure they have found proof that the family were legit, that is when the murders start to happen.

I give this four stars because well, you know how people from these "nuveau rich" families are like. They give themselves airs and think they can act like rich people trying desperately to hide the rumours. Not very likeable characters at all. The genealogists (there were 2 of them) were wonderful!!

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that's a genealogy mystery! I want to see a genealogist who actually searches for and uses records. This mystery depends upon untangling convoluted relationships.

Sophreena McClure and her housemate Esme Sabatier trace family histories and make scrapbooks of their findings for their clients. Dorothy Pritchett Porter wishes to display her newly-created scrapbooks at Founders' Day--but she is murdered before that can happen.

Sophreena and Esme quickly realize they have much more to uncover in their client's family history and they and their scrapbooking club members (who are eager to help) proceed to delve and solve. Most satisfying.

I liked the characters, I liked the relationships between them, and I liked the mystery which was not simple and took a lot of ingenuity to solve.

[Katharine Ott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Paging the Dead" - written by Brynn Bonner and published in 2013 by Gallery Books, Simon & Schuster. You can hardly go wrong by me with a combination of mystery, genealogy and scrapbooking! The mystery was of course linked to the genealogy and was engaging enough but not especially exciting. The book features a partnership of two professional genealogists, one of whom has "visitations" from deceased family members they are researching - a little far-fetched for me. The scrapbooking was an important part of their current project and that was fun to imagine although I could never work as quickly as they had to. All in all, it was a nice cozy story with elements I could connect to.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professional genealogist Sophie McClure and her partner, Esme Sabatier are almost finished researching a family history for Dorothy Pritchett Porter, but the evening of their final meeting, Dorothy is found murdered. Both of them soon become suspects and they realize they better start doing further research to help clear their name.
I found this book interesting because the main characters use a combination of scrapbooking to record the information on the members of the family tree.
An easy read and a mystery besides!

[Susan B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book, would definitely read another in the series. I had figured out who the killer was , but never surmised the other twist. Liked the characters of Sophreena and Esme, felt they were a good combination. The concept of their being genealogists was something new and different.

Think you will enjoy it.

[Terri Pilate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable mystery/whodunit. Two women who are genealogists find themselves suspects in the murder of their wealthy client after spending significant time researching her family history. They were cleared of the crime but asked to complete the project for the client’s memorial.

I knew who did it midway but did not know why or how.

I’m looking forward to reading the series.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. The genealogist parts were really interesting. And the amateur sleuths part was excellent. They really just continues to do their job and solves the crime. They weren’t overly pushy and actually works with the police to provide information. It was nice to see. I would read other books in this series.

[Gracie Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an alright book. When reading the synopsis, I was excited for an adventure with ghosts, family history, and friendship, but in the book there was one ghost that made an appearance and really didn’t add much except to the final chapter where the entire murder was summarized. Overall, not my favorite murder mystery, but I do love the different take with using the family history.

[Shala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first cozy mystery I've read in a while, and it was so nice to get back into the genre. Although I had the murderer pegged from very on in the story, I still enjoyed the denouement and was happy that I didn't have everything figured out. Cute story.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genealogy is the basics of this novel. When 2 friends take on their heritage business a woman who believes to be quasi-famous because of her great-grandfather another person becomes super involved. This leads to a death and a long investigation. Or maybe it just seemed long.

[Teri Stich · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a fun bit of reading. A genealogist turn sleuth. Didn't realize tracking down the past could be so dangerous. LOL. Great concept and great execution. Looking forward the the next in the series!
Cozy mystery readers should enjoy this.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I figured out the murderer early on but not the full motive

The little bits of genealogy sprinkled throughout reminded me of when my mom and dad were researching our family history.

Looking forward to reading the next book in the series

[Dominish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get past the first two chapters...but I tried.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mystery which used genealogy to help solve the crime and had some scrapbooking thrown in for good measure. I will have to check out the next in the series.

[alexia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Joanne Tackaberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was a good book just a little slow in the middle BUT I didn’t predict the killer. A good ending twist!!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. I want to read more in the series.

[Patsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I would enjoy a "Family History Mystery", but I enjoyed this book very much.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect light but interesting reading for these times of confinement due to the world pandemic. Well written, fun characters and surprise ending

[Rosemary Hisey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different then I thought it would be but I still liked it.

[Shelley Chamberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the characters, and the plot and subplot wove together nicely.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book

[SAM · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you love cozy mysteries, this is a pass. Plotting goes awry, timing is off and characters -- well, who cares. So many good books, so little time. Time can be used better.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grabbed this from our little neighborhood library. Quick read.