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Alex and Briggie #3
Tangled Roots
Who’s Telling the Truth? Holly Weston, a teenager locked down in drug rehab, claims she’s never used drugs, but that her incarceration is all a plot by her parents. Why? To establish her mental incompetency so she won’t discover that they’ve embezzled the fortune she is about to inherit. Her grandmother, a slightly dotty widow claims that her father was murdered when she was nineteen, after which she dyed her hair platinum, went to Hollywood, and met Clark Gable (and her husband). Holly’s mother, a rigid, disapproving figure, tells Alex and Briggie both her her mother and daughter are lying, forbidding them to dig any further among the family’s roots.
What in the world are Alex and Briggie up to now? Holly’s counselor has hired them to do a genogram or psychological pedigree, to find where the family secrets are hiding. She is convinced Holly’s mother is frightened for Holly. Why does Mrs. Weston refuse to acknowledge her grandfather’s murder? What is she so afraid of the RootSearch, Inc. team discovering about her family?
What does the family history have to do another murder, Holly’s disappearance, and the strange trio of middle-aged men who are following Briggie and Alex and her mother? Alex accepted this case in order to be back with her mother for a while, now that she has emerged from her rehabilitation. A fifteen year estrangement has rendered them strangers, and she feels it her duty to try to mend the rift. Her mother proves to be “pluck to the backbone” as Alex’s British suitor, Charles, says. The four of them soon become mired in Holly’s unexpectedly tangled roots, with surprising off-shoots surfacing all over the country. Encountering both danger and new friends, they also take responsibility for a slew of eccentric pets. Amidst the action, Alex’s love life takes a turn that both baffles and scares her.
Join our genealogical sleuths as they strive, as always, to find out the real truth that is at the “root” of this family’s dysfunction and fear, enabling it to take the first steps to healing.
Book 3 in the Alex & Briggie Mystery series
What in the world are Alex and Briggie up to now? Holly’s counselor has hired them to do a genogram or psychological pedigree, to find where the family secrets are hiding. She is convinced Holly’s mother is frightened for Holly. Why does Mrs. Weston refuse to acknowledge her grandfather’s murder? What is she so afraid of the RootSearch, Inc. team discovering about her family?
What does the family history have to do another murder, Holly’s disappearance, and the strange trio of middle-aged men who are following Briggie and Alex and her mother? Alex accepted this case in order to be back with her mother for a while, now that she has emerged from her rehabilitation. A fifteen year estrangement has rendered them strangers, and she feels it her duty to try to mend the rift. Her mother proves to be “pluck to the backbone” as Alex’s British suitor, Charles, says. The four of them soon become mired in Holly’s unexpectedly tangled roots, with surprising off-shoots surfacing all over the country. Encountering both danger and new friends, they also take responsibility for a slew of eccentric pets. Amidst the action, Alex’s love life takes a turn that both baffles and scares her.
Join our genealogical sleuths as they strive, as always, to find out the real truth that is at the “root” of this family’s dysfunction and fear, enabling it to take the first steps to healing.
Book 3 in the Alex & Briggie Mystery series
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
8 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
About the author
G.G. Vandagriff
55 books325 followersG.G. Vandagriff is the author of over thirty novels Amazon #1 Bestselling Author. The Last Waltz, the first novel in her 20th Century Historical Romance Series won the Whitney Award for Best Historical Novel in 2009. There are now two more books in that series—Exile and Defiance.
Thirteen of her novels are Regency romances, compared by critics to the witty novels of Georgette Heyer. She has also written a lively genealogical mystery series featuring Briggie and Alex, two whacky widows, as sleuths. Her most recent publications are Romantic Suspense. Her trilogy featuring Breaking News, Sleeping Secrets, and Balkan Echo tell the tale of high profile TV journalists--the Super Sleuths of WOOT TV station in Chicago.
GG graduated from Stanford and received her master’s degree from George Washington University. She worked as an associate editor at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, an assistant treasurer in the Harvard Treasurer’s office, a bond analyst at Fidelity Investments, and an international banker for Continental Illinois National Bank (later acquired by Bank of America).
She and her husband David are the parents of three children and seven grandchildren, her greatest joys in life. Her favorite novel? Jane Eyre. She also loves Florence, Sundance Resort, The Voice, hot chocolate, lilacs, and dachshunds.
Find out more about her books, download a free novella, and sign up for her newsletter at http://ggvandagriff.com. Also, be the first to know when Vandagriff’s next book is available by following her at http://bookbub.com/authors/G.G.Vandag... to receive new releases and discount alerts.
Thirteen of her novels are Regency romances, compared by critics to the witty novels of Georgette Heyer. She has also written a lively genealogical mystery series featuring Briggie and Alex, two whacky widows, as sleuths. Her most recent publications are Romantic Suspense. Her trilogy featuring Breaking News, Sleeping Secrets, and Balkan Echo tell the tale of high profile TV journalists--the Super Sleuths of WOOT TV station in Chicago.
GG graduated from Stanford and received her master’s degree from George Washington University. She worked as an associate editor at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, an assistant treasurer in the Harvard Treasurer’s office, a bond analyst at Fidelity Investments, and an international banker for Continental Illinois National Bank (later acquired by Bank of America).
She and her husband David are the parents of three children and seven grandchildren, her greatest joys in life. Her favorite novel? Jane Eyre. She also loves Florence, Sundance Resort, The Voice, hot chocolate, lilacs, and dachshunds.
Find out more about her books, download a free novella, and sign up for her newsletter at http://ggvandagriff.com. Also, be the first to know when Vandagriff’s next book is available by following her at http://bookbub.com/authors/G.G.Vandag... to receive new releases and discount alerts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
October 10, 2010
Read the book completely, thinking it would be better since it was written 20-some years later....the writing STYLE was much better. Not nearly as choppy. But the twists and turns were a bit much. And it is so confusing to have main characters' names so similar: Glady's and Grace and Gwenyth, and William Williams, and William Williams Jr, etc. Out of a million names, could the author not have chosen names that wouldn't blend together as bad as the story blends together?!
August 24, 2008
By the time I got to reading this third book in the Alex Campbell genealogy mystery series I was really questioning why I was still reading the series. I was hopeful that maybe the passage of time between the second and third book would equal a better book. My hopes were dashed in the first few pages.
In Tangled Roots Alex Campbell is investigating the family history of a teenage girl who has been institutionalized by her parents for supposed drug use. The premise for the story was just weak and once again I found it extremely farcical. The book brings back all the characters from the previous two books and introduces a few new ones but they were all still flat. The characters always seemed to have strong emotions but I only knew they had strong emotions because the author would employ such words as "she exploded at him." No depth. Many of the passages were just nauseating or had me rolling my eyes.
Alex's character was just annoying in this book. I really have a difficult time gaining interest in a character who is so whiny, needy and dense. A note to the author: if you are going to develop a love story between characters that are cousins can you stop having them refer to each other as cousins? Even if they are 2nd or 3rd cousins. Having someone declare love to someone else and then refer to her as his cousin, it just has a certain ick factor.
I also felt like I had read this book before as it seemed very similar to Cankered Roots.
There is another book in the series coming out soon but I am done with this author. They are quick reads but there are so many other books I would rather be reading. That and I hate writing these negative reviews. I really do. But I really did not enjoy these books.
In Tangled Roots Alex Campbell is investigating the family history of a teenage girl who has been institutionalized by her parents for supposed drug use. The premise for the story was just weak and once again I found it extremely farcical. The book brings back all the characters from the previous two books and introduces a few new ones but they were all still flat. The characters always seemed to have strong emotions but I only knew they had strong emotions because the author would employ such words as "she exploded at him." No depth. Many of the passages were just nauseating or had me rolling my eyes.
Alex's character was just annoying in this book. I really have a difficult time gaining interest in a character who is so whiny, needy and dense. A note to the author: if you are going to develop a love story between characters that are cousins can you stop having them refer to each other as cousins? Even if they are 2nd or 3rd cousins. Having someone declare love to someone else and then refer to her as his cousin, it just has a certain ick factor.
I also felt like I had read this book before as it seemed very similar to Cankered Roots.
There is another book in the series coming out soon but I am done with this author. They are quick reads but there are so many other books I would rather be reading. That and I hate writing these negative reviews. I really do. But I really did not enjoy these books.
August 2, 2011
I found the premise to this book dumb and unrealisitic. Two women have a geneology detective agency where they are hired by hospitals to find out a patient's geneology and how the ancestors may have an effect on that patient's psychological state. What hospital would actually do that? It also seems random that someone's great-great grandfather MIGHT have affected the patient somehow so why don't we do some geneology to find out? And there are supposedly enough requests for this kind of geneology work that these characters can create a business? The author gives no clear connection from the beginning as to why the dead ancestors are suspected to be the problem in the first place. Then the main characters just happen to uncover some old murders within this family they are researching that have nothing to do with the original premise of the book. On top of all of this, this book is set in the pre-computer era so all of the geneological researching is done in libraries the hard way; annoying to read about knowing how easy computers make it in the present-era. The novel is supposedly LDS fiction, but the only thing that makes it so are brief mentions that the main characters go to church or were converted recently. The LDS part is very under-developed and just seemed like a rushed add-on in order to market it as LDS fiction. Overall, didn't enjoy this book very much. Thank goodness it was a fast read.
March 5, 2009
Holly is in a drug rehab facility, but insists that she's not a druggie. Her parents aren't talking, but they seem scared for some reason. Alex and her business partner Briggie, cofounders of a family history search company called Roots, Inc., agree to do a genogram of Holly's family history to see if they can help get to the bottom of her troubles. In the process they uncover an unsolved murder, a huge inheritance, and several previously unknown relatives, all of whom may or may not be eligible for a slice of the money, and who may be willing to kill to get it. Alex and Briggie are running out of time to fill in all the question marks on the family tree, before they get bumped off by someone who would rather it all remain a mystery.
Exciting, suspenseful.
Exciting, suspenseful.
May 28, 2010
Interesting premise: mystery series based on a genealogist's findings and the implications of family roots tangles. This one is fairly well written. The romance element is a bit much and pretty stereotypical (choosing between "good" and "mysterious" guys), and unfortunately the ending has a contrived feeling. The mystery is well revealed until the ending. It's worth reading if you have some free time to spare.
April 4, 2008
I'm reading this book and I am enjoying it. I didn't realize that there are two books before this. It's about 2 women who solve mysteries using geneology. An interesting concept. There are two books that come before this one. I didn't realize that when I started reading. I'll have to check them out.
May 5, 2008
I missed that this is the third book in the bunch so I missed a lot of character development reading it first. A family history mystery to solve has a lot of suspense but I only finished it to feel like I accomplished something.
June 14, 2008
This was a fun mystery. It wove you through the characters family genealogy. It was fun tracking the line.
January 22, 2009
Excellent book! Has a really thick plot that you don't figure out until the end!!!! Plus you can really relate to the main character and you fall in love with the men in it! Definitely a good read!!!
April 27, 2010
Clunky- couldn't make it past the first 30 pages. Might have gotten better but decided I had other books that would more likely pull me in by the end of my third sitting!
meh
October 9, 2011I was randomly given this book for free at a party. Just don't care to read it.
July 27, 2013
Started reading and even after a few chapters, I wasn't able to get into it. Writing style was not very good and was somewhat choppy. Not really interested in finishing it.
February 16, 2020
Alex begins another genealogical hunt, this time to help a teenage girl locked in a mental institution. She calls Briggie for help and once again they unravel family secrets and more than one murder. The danger is only part of the problem; Alex is torn between Daniel and Charles. This book, like the previous two leave many questions and issues unresolved. The author's personal journey with this book is fascinating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2019
Absolutely hooked on this series.Highly recommend !
Read
June 16, 2020This book is a very cool idea. Genograms. I'd never heard of them! Now I think I wish I had one on me!
July 14, 2020
Best book of the series so far! So good!
September 20, 2020
Good, but sometimes cheesy, sometimes preachy. I like the whole geneology mystery idea though.
January 6, 2021
Wish I could give 3 1/2 stars. Good story.
February 9, 2025
The writing is choppy and horribly done. The story and conversations are not believable. I just can't make myself continue.
April 15, 2008
Professional genealogist Alexandra Campbell and her partner Brighamina Poulson are once more brought to life by G. G. Vandagriff in her latest genealogical mystery, Tangled Roots. In this adventure, Alex and Briggie find themselves in snow-covered Chicago suburbs, delving into a family tree full of murder, apparent suicide, marital scandal, and long-buried secrets; both are very happy to have Briggie’s deer rifle close at hand before the plot finishes its twists and turns.
What starts out as a fairly routine request to put together a psychological family tree for a young client in a rehabilitation facility, quickly turns into a complicated – and life-threatening – mess as lost heirs are uncovered and wills are re-read. If the reader can get through Alex Campbell’s second-guessing herself and apparent uneasiness with her own past, there is an entertaining story full of twists and standard mystery clue-dropping to enjoy.
The sudden death of a client’s family member is an early hint to our heroines that there’s more to mapping the Williams family tree, or genogram, than usual. Briggie and Alex find themselves speaking with Alex’s mother Amelia about the death:
“How did she die?” Briggie demanded.
“They found her in the lake,” Amelia said, sniffling. “Her body washed up against one of the neighbor’s piers this morning. The police were searching there, and they found her.”
She pulled away from her daughter’s embrace and wiped her eyes. “Oh, Alex! They think it was suicide. But it can’t be, can it? Someone did it! It all has to do with that wretched genogram. It has to.”
The little dachshund, aware of distress, began to whine. Briggie came over and rested a hand on Amelia’s arm. “We’ll find out who did this, honey. Don’t worry. We’re good at what we do.”
Alex looked into Briggie’s face, seeking, in her own shock, the reassurance she always found there. “Mother’s right. It must have to do with the genogram. We have to talk to the police.” (p.120)
In between gathering data for family histories, young widow Alex has to come to grips with her own tender testimony, her childhood and the discoveries she’s making about her recovering alcoholic mother now suffering from MS. Alex’s faith in Christ and belief in the Atonement help her through some rough periods, but, as in real life, Heavenly Father doesn’t provide all the answers in one neat little package. The clues to Alex’s ability to come to terms and reacquaint herself with her mother are revealed slowly as she and her mentor/partner Briggie unearth genealogical data from libraries and government offices.
After one particularly bad incident, Alex turned to Briggie for advice and heard:
“I don’t know, honey. I honestly don’t know. I’ve never had to go through what you’ve gone through. You’re willing to forgive. That’s the main thing.” Opening her carryall, she began rummaging through it as though looking for an answer. “I think maybe you need some deeper kind of healing for all the stuff that’s programmed into your nervous system. It’s something you and the Lord are going to have to work out.”
Helping Alex, or not, as the case may be, are two potential love interests – longtime friend and confidante Dr. Daniel Grinnell and the suave and dashing distant cousin, Brit Charles Lamb, in America wrapping up loose ends from his last adventure with Alex. Both men are interested in Alexandra’s emotions and safety, and her dealings with their advances are sometimes distracting early in the book. But since they remain unresolved at book’s end, perhaps there is more in store for Vandagriff’s loyal fans who want to see Alex happily married in the temple.
Tangled Roots has its own complicated beginning. It was truly a “lost manuscript” for Vandagriff. Shortly after completing the last book in this series, Of Deadly Descent, in 1996, Vandagriff became seriously ill and eventually caused her to lose both her memory and her ability to write. Ten years later, she was healed, but without her memory. When she found the manuscript on her computer, she rewrote it, keeping its pre-internet timing intact.
This book is a fun read for anyone interested in twisted family murder plots with a little romance and missionary work thrown in for spice. An ending that wraps up most of the loose threads and provides healing to several distraught families and people should satisfy all but the pickiest of readers this summer.
What starts out as a fairly routine request to put together a psychological family tree for a young client in a rehabilitation facility, quickly turns into a complicated – and life-threatening – mess as lost heirs are uncovered and wills are re-read. If the reader can get through Alex Campbell’s second-guessing herself and apparent uneasiness with her own past, there is an entertaining story full of twists and standard mystery clue-dropping to enjoy.
The sudden death of a client’s family member is an early hint to our heroines that there’s more to mapping the Williams family tree, or genogram, than usual. Briggie and Alex find themselves speaking with Alex’s mother Amelia about the death:
“How did she die?” Briggie demanded.
“They found her in the lake,” Amelia said, sniffling. “Her body washed up against one of the neighbor’s piers this morning. The police were searching there, and they found her.”
She pulled away from her daughter’s embrace and wiped her eyes. “Oh, Alex! They think it was suicide. But it can’t be, can it? Someone did it! It all has to do with that wretched genogram. It has to.”
The little dachshund, aware of distress, began to whine. Briggie came over and rested a hand on Amelia’s arm. “We’ll find out who did this, honey. Don’t worry. We’re good at what we do.”
Alex looked into Briggie’s face, seeking, in her own shock, the reassurance she always found there. “Mother’s right. It must have to do with the genogram. We have to talk to the police.” (p.120)
In between gathering data for family histories, young widow Alex has to come to grips with her own tender testimony, her childhood and the discoveries she’s making about her recovering alcoholic mother now suffering from MS. Alex’s faith in Christ and belief in the Atonement help her through some rough periods, but, as in real life, Heavenly Father doesn’t provide all the answers in one neat little package. The clues to Alex’s ability to come to terms and reacquaint herself with her mother are revealed slowly as she and her mentor/partner Briggie unearth genealogical data from libraries and government offices.
After one particularly bad incident, Alex turned to Briggie for advice and heard:
“I don’t know, honey. I honestly don’t know. I’ve never had to go through what you’ve gone through. You’re willing to forgive. That’s the main thing.” Opening her carryall, she began rummaging through it as though looking for an answer. “I think maybe you need some deeper kind of healing for all the stuff that’s programmed into your nervous system. It’s something you and the Lord are going to have to work out.”
Helping Alex, or not, as the case may be, are two potential love interests – longtime friend and confidante Dr. Daniel Grinnell and the suave and dashing distant cousin, Brit Charles Lamb, in America wrapping up loose ends from his last adventure with Alex. Both men are interested in Alexandra’s emotions and safety, and her dealings with their advances are sometimes distracting early in the book. But since they remain unresolved at book’s end, perhaps there is more in store for Vandagriff’s loyal fans who want to see Alex happily married in the temple.
Tangled Roots has its own complicated beginning. It was truly a “lost manuscript” for Vandagriff. Shortly after completing the last book in this series, Of Deadly Descent, in 1996, Vandagriff became seriously ill and eventually caused her to lose both her memory and her ability to write. Ten years later, she was healed, but without her memory. When she found the manuscript on her computer, she rewrote it, keeping its pre-internet timing intact.
This book is a fun read for anyone interested in twisted family murder plots with a little romance and missionary work thrown in for spice. An ending that wraps up most of the loose threads and provides healing to several distraught families and people should satisfy all but the pickiest of readers this summer.
March 26, 2021
Slow start. Enjoyed the ending
March 26, 2014
I'm liking more and more the solving of crimes through genealogical research part of this series, but I'm less and less happy with the romance and religious elements. The genealogical puzzle was terrifically challenging, and Alex and Briggie's research quite interesting to follow. It's also a fun thing that Alex's mother has recovered enough to want to assist and that Alex and Briggie don't have problems with including her.
But the romantic triangle is irritating, unsatisfying in its indeterminate ending. The murder mystery genre for people like me exists solely to present a puzzle, a world out of order that is set again into its proper order by the solving of the mystery. Introducing a romance that is inconclusive undercuts the genre in ways that make me grind my teeth in sheer frustration. Dorothy L. Sayers managed it, but she did it by managing to convey to her readers that the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane romance was determinate, depending only on time to resolve. Alex's wavering between two men who both surely deserve her is unfair, especially given Alex's relationship with those connected with each man. I really wish Alex had married her first boyfriend between the first two books and spent any spare time in the series working on adjusting to her new family members. There was plenty of comic potential there, which would have been a welcome foil to the stress of the solving of each case.
The religious elements are irritating too. The conversion process mirrors "real life" and by its nature is never-ending, not something to be put into a novel, which should make an effort to be a standalone, rounded-off work. This is not a religious journey novel. But the entire series tries to be so.
And STILL I want to read more of Alex and Briggie's adventures!
But the romantic triangle is irritating, unsatisfying in its indeterminate ending. The murder mystery genre for people like me exists solely to present a puzzle, a world out of order that is set again into its proper order by the solving of the mystery. Introducing a romance that is inconclusive undercuts the genre in ways that make me grind my teeth in sheer frustration. Dorothy L. Sayers managed it, but she did it by managing to convey to her readers that the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane romance was determinate, depending only on time to resolve. Alex's wavering between two men who both surely deserve her is unfair, especially given Alex's relationship with those connected with each man. I really wish Alex had married her first boyfriend between the first two books and spent any spare time in the series working on adjusting to her new family members. There was plenty of comic potential there, which would have been a welcome foil to the stress of the solving of each case.
The religious elements are irritating too. The conversion process mirrors "real life" and by its nature is never-ending, not something to be put into a novel, which should make an effort to be a standalone, rounded-off work. This is not a religious journey novel. But the entire series tries to be so.
And STILL I want to read more of Alex and Briggie's adventures!
June 15, 2012
LDS Fiction. Third book in the "Alex and Briggie" series. Professional genealogists and amateur sleuths are Alexandra Campbell and her partner in RootSearch Inc., Brighamina Poulson. They are both widows. Briggie, a grandmother of nine, while Alex is a recent widow still coming to terms with the sudden and tragic death of her husband. Briggie hails from pioneer stock in the LDS Church while Alex is a relatively recent convert.
In this episode Alex and Briggie are called upon to use their genealogy expertise in tracing the possible psychological implications existing in the family of one young woman, Holly Weston, who has been placed in a treatment center for "her own protection". Campbell and Poulson have been hired by the physician at the treatment center to look into Holly's family tree. Their research begins to attract the attention of a few people who are uneasy about Alex and Briggie's activities, so much so, that "spooky guys" are following them nearly everywhere they go.
One aspect of these stories that make these books so much fun to read (for me) is their focus on genealogy. I have gleaned a number of ideas and insights that will be valuable to me in my own research into my family history. Thank you G. G. Vandagriff.
This is one series where it is recommended that you read the books in the order in which they were written. There are on-going relationships and situations which benefit from the structure established by the author in the previous novels.
In this episode Alex and Briggie are called upon to use their genealogy expertise in tracing the possible psychological implications existing in the family of one young woman, Holly Weston, who has been placed in a treatment center for "her own protection". Campbell and Poulson have been hired by the physician at the treatment center to look into Holly's family tree. Their research begins to attract the attention of a few people who are uneasy about Alex and Briggie's activities, so much so, that "spooky guys" are following them nearly everywhere they go.
One aspect of these stories that make these books so much fun to read (for me) is their focus on genealogy. I have gleaned a number of ideas and insights that will be valuable to me in my own research into my family history. Thank you G. G. Vandagriff.
This is one series where it is recommended that you read the books in the order in which they were written. There are on-going relationships and situations which benefit from the structure established by the author in the previous novels.
July 16, 2010
mystery book that involves genelogy to solve the multiple murders in a family tree because of a will that goes to the eldest son. The decendents don't know that the obvious line is not the only line for inheritance...there is a illegitamit son and the daughter of his first wife who died in childbirth that is trying to kill off the other so they can inherit. This line of Naomi is also systematically marrying the daughters of the obvious line in order to come into some money. Briggie and Alex originally thought they were trying to help Holly, whose parents put her into a drug rehab center find what family secret, genetics were turning her to drugs when really her mother put her there to protect her from becoming a target.
Alex's mother who she has resented for sending her away to Paris while younger helps on the case and slowly memories from her early childhood come to the forfront...positive ones. She finds that her mother wasn't always the alcoholic, but a loving mother and only sent her away to Paris to shelter her from the effects.
Charles, her distant cousin is also in Chicago and ends up being the protector, and the murderer becomes defensive of the pedigree investigatgion. He confesses his love for alex and although she has feelings for Daniel, her friend and a therapist, her attraction for Charles is more natural.
Alex's mother who she has resented for sending her away to Paris while younger helps on the case and slowly memories from her early childhood come to the forfront...positive ones. She finds that her mother wasn't always the alcoholic, but a loving mother and only sent her away to Paris to shelter her from the effects.
Charles, her distant cousin is also in Chicago and ends up being the protector, and the murderer becomes defensive of the pedigree investigatgion. He confesses his love for alex and although she has feelings for Daniel, her friend and a therapist, her attraction for Charles is more natural.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2016
Tangled Roots continues the Alex and Briggie series, but with a new twist. This time Alex has been hired by a mental institution to piece together the family history of one of their patients, in order to find the dark secret that has the patient and her family on edge.
I liked the setting for this book, and it was full of twists and turns that keep the reader on edge until the very end. I appreciated that over the course of the series, Alex didn't miraculously overcome her anxiety/PTSD super fast, but rather it continued to be a problem for her. It's refreshing to see a more realistic depiction of anxiety in today's media.
I liked the setting for this book, and it was full of twists and turns that keep the reader on edge until the very end. I appreciated that over the course of the series, Alex didn't miraculously overcome her anxiety/PTSD super fast, but rather it continued to be a problem for her. It's refreshing to see a more realistic depiction of anxiety in today's media.
January 15, 2013
This is another exciting Alex Campbell and Brighamina Poulsen murder mystery. I love how genealogy can solve a murder, which seems to follow Alex. Even Alex's mother gets caught up in the search. Her cousin Charles, introduced in "Of Deadly Decent", becomes a major player in this novel--even so far as his telling Alex he's in love with her. Besides the excitement of the chase, one wonders what will happen between Alex and Daniel now that Charles has declared himself.
November 1, 2009
If you enjoy mystery, tied in with history, you should enjoy any books written by this author. Plus her books are very clean. I always think that the sign of a good author is someone who can write a book that keeps the reader's attention without a bunch of smut and coarse language--anyone can do that stuff!
October 6, 2010
This book was given to me by a friend. I read this one and the next one, HIDDEN BRANCH and enjoyed them both, So I sent off for the first in this series, CANKERED ROOTS. I enjoy genealogy and a good mystery. This series combines both in a satisfying way. The characters are engaging and I have now become fond of them. I will read all five in the series.
March 5, 2008
I absolutely loved this third book after G G. had a long break from writing. This was much better than the prvious two. Am looking forward to the next installment of Alex and Briggie. If you love genealogy, you'll love this series.
April 4, 2008
I liked this book. I could really imagine these characters and they were fun for me. There is a book that was written before this one that I haven't read yet, but it didn't stop me from understanding anything in this one. It is a fun mystery, genealogy, love triangle etc... A fun read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews