A Misty Mourning

Torie O'Shea #4

by Rett MacPherson

A ten-hour car trip with your eighty-year-old grandmother is never much fun, especially if you're seven months pregnant. But when Torie O'Shea's longtime family friend Clarissa Hart Campbell insists that she and Grandma Gert come for a visit at her West Virginia boarding house, they just can't say no to the 101-year-old dynamo.

Upon their arrival, Torie and Gert find Clarissa has called together her entire family for the reading of her new will. But everything's happening too fast, even for Clari: the next morning, she's found murdered in bed. The new will stands, and her lawyer follows through on the old woman's wishes to settle an eighty-year-old debt to Torie's great-grandmother: The Panther Run Boarding House now belongs to Torie. Mystified, Torie must put her genealogy skills to work to determine what secrets worth killing for may be hiding in the dilapidated boarding house and the Campbell family story-before it's too late.

A comical blend of history and homicide, A Misty Mourning is another delightfully witty entry in Rett MacPherson's popular cozy series.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy

255 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2000

About the author

Rett MacPherson was born in Saint Louis, Missouri. She is the author of the popular Torie O'Shea mysteries and helped to pioneer the sub-genre of genealogical mysteries. She is also a bead and fabric artist and loves wineries, cemeteries, genealogy, history and of course, books.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Torie goes to visit a family friend in West Virginia and there she finds her dead with a pillow on her face. Given how she was the first to find her she becomes the prime suspect. She then has to work to clear her name in this town where she has few friends.

I thought the book was interesting in the way that it taught me about the company owned towns. I thought the mystery was a little bit predictable and honestly I thought this was the first in the series until embarrassingly late so I just kept on reading it. I am not very motivated to pick up the first book but we’ll see!

[Susan Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start off by saying that I don't normally read cozy mysteries. However, the Torie O'Shea Mystery Series is such a good one! Torie O'Shea is a small town snoop. She didn't really start out that way. She's actually a genealogist and historian. She can't help it that the mysteries from the past that she digs up cause people to want to kill her and others. A Misty Mourning is the fourth book in this series, which means zilch. They absolutely stand on their own. In fact, I haven't read books 1-3. I have read two books somewhere further down the line past A Misty Mourning, also good books.

A Misty Mourning has Torie driving from her home in southeast Missouri to the home of her ancestors, Virginia. She's travelling with her scatter-brained grandmother, Gert. Oh, and Torie's 8 months pregnant, too. It seems that a friend of Torie's great-grandmother wants Torie to be in Virginia for the reading of her will. True, the friend isn't yet dead, but at 101 years old, I guess she can do whatever she wants. Not to worry, though, the centenarian is murdered within 24 hours of Torie's arrival. Did it have something to do with Torie inheriting the old lady's boarding house? And why does the sheriff seem certain that Torie is involved?

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[Marty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torie O’Shay, is a genealogist who loved tracing people’s history – especially her own. She was 7 months pregnant when she and her grandmother, a feisty 82 year old were asked to return to her Grandmother’s old home in West Virginia. It seems that Torie’s great-grandmother’s best friend Clarissa Hart (whom Torie had never met) now 101, wanted to see them. Realizing that this might be a last chance for her grandmother to see her old home area, Torie agreed to go for a short visit. To her surprise, the purpose of the trip turned out to be the reading of the old lady’s will even though she was not yet dead. That changed when on the first night there, the old lady died – probably she was killed. It seems that Torie had inherited the lady’s boarding house along with the land (10 acres) and the lady’s children weren’t too happy about it. Torie who was then the main suspect and her grandmother were told not to leave the area until the murder was solved. …. While looking through the material that Clarissa had left Torie, she uncovered old family mysteries… Could Torie find out who the people in the photographs were… and why Clarissa left her the boarding house?

[Rhonda Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this series is getting better all the time. Torie digs into a mystery when she and her grandmother visit an old boardinghouse owned by an old woman who was friends with her great-grandmother. The woman was 101 and not in the best health, but Torie finds a pillow over her face and the woman dead the morning after she arrives. When the woman's will is read, Torie has been left the boardinghouse. Another mysterious character is left $50,000, and then he is found dead. The thing I didn't understand was how the lawyer was able to get to the house, but the sheriff wasn't, because of the flooding... when in the end, the sheriff had been in the house and killed the old woman (and possibly the other heir)? It was a moving story, though, with a lot of twists and turns (and research!), and Torie had help from her cousin to solve it -- and save her life. But, c'mon, you can't end the book like that!

[Liz V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Torie and her grandmother, Gert, have returned to the West Virginia town where Gert grew up, at the invitation of Clarissa Hart. Clarissa had been the best friend of Gert's mother and, at 101, knows it is time to pay old debts. Someone, however, kills Clarissa before she can tell Torie why she stands to inherit a considerable portion of Clarissa's estate. Torie, now prime suspect, and her fellow genealogist cousin have to sort through relationships, not an easy prospect in a town where four or five generations have lived and intermarried. In the course of doing so, Torie gains a new appreciation for her family's grit in surviving and escaping the grinding poverty of the coal miners' lives.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery with plenty of twists in this story of murder, greed, revenge and friendship that goes back to the 1920s and the harsh realities of coal mining in West Virginia. I really like Torie O'Shea and her cantankerous grandma, Gert. They seem like very real people with flaws and strengths. And Torie isn't shy about the fact that she is noisy so doesn't feel at all bad about poking about old family secrets like why a woman she never knew would give her a property in her will, even if the woman knew her great-grandmother. Torie has all the more motivation when the woman is murdered, and Torie, in the very late stages of her pregnancy, becomes the prime suspect.

[JennyCash · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this one. As usual, I felt like I needed a chart to keep the family tree straight in my head. The mystery was excellent but the description of driving up the mountainsides of West Virginia caused too much anxiety. I know those drives! How does anyone get used to that? My grandparents grew up in a coal mining community. I love reading even fictional tales of this difficult life.

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torie and her granny Gert go to visit a friend in West Virginia to hear her will and she dies. Torie is the prime suspect, even though she’s seven months pregnant. A wonderful read, Torie is smart, sassy, and someone you just want to hang out with and share a spot of tea, or a bottle of Dr. Pepper, which Torie would prefer.

[Karen Holman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a crazy group of characters including a seven month pregnant woman an 87 year old grandmother, a West Virginia setting, and a mystery that may surprise the reader. copy right 2000

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun read but lots of characters!

[Laurie D'ghent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique take on a murder mystery. Mild swearing and innuendo

[S. Niehart · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are great stories!! I love the mysteries and the genealogy. Thanks Rett!!

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this fun, quirky mystery. I look forward to reading more of hear work.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and well-written.









enjoyable and well written

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly deep mystery with more delicious history in it. I already knew about the ways the company screwed the miners. I guess i thought everybody did.

[Destiny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of cussing

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, set in the South. I always love a mystery populated with eccentric characters, and the Torie O'Shea mysteries have lots. I am definitely ordering more.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

he 4th installment of the Torie O'Shea Genealogical Mystery series by Rett MacPherson, A Misty Mourning, Torie ended up in another pickle of hers. For eight-month pregnant Torie, a ten-hour trip with her 80-year-old grandmother wasn't fun. When her long-time friend Clarissa Campbell asked them to stay in a 101-year-old West Virginia boardinghouse, she couldn't say no. When they arrived there, Clarissa gathered around for a reading of her will. Before she knew, Clarissa was murdered in her own bed the next morning. As her new will stands, the boardinghouse was indebted to Torie, a debt to her great-grandmother. Now it was up to Torie to use her genealogical skills to find out what was worth dying for in the old boardinghouse.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book to end the reading year on! Torie is in West Virginia because a 101 year-old woman has invited her to listen to the reading of her will, while she is still alive. The town is her Grandmother's home town so Grandma comes along to visit old friends, family and see things once again.

Of course, the old woman dies, and Torie is discovered standing over her holding a pillow. Now Torie has to use her genealogy skills to try and unravel an 80 year-old mystery that involves lynching, mysterious disappearances, and a beautiful handmade quilt.

I certainly didn't see the ending of this one coming, the tangled family lines that exist in a small town are very hard to trace in this book, and I loved it.

Highly recommended and I can't wait to read the next one.

[Rusty · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot of the book is reasonable and I enjoyed the key character, Torie, but the character of Torie's grandmother is but a shadow of what she could be. The writing is choppy. poor, and story development inconsistent. Just when I thought it was flowing along I was halted with a "What's this?" So many cliches and errors in the story. One example: a woman who is to be interviewed opens the door with a shawl over her shoulders. In the next paragraph she holds an afghan around her. As the protagonist investigates almost everyone in the book has a reason to murder the 101-year-old woman from her children to her servants to the local sheriff. I won't waste any more time writing about this one and instead suggest that anyone thinking about reading it choose another.

[Martha Valasek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mystery, part of a series from Torie O'Shea, with both humor and suspense. My husband was reading it and suggested that I may like it. I enjoyed it! In this story, Torie, a historian and very pregnant, takes her grandmother to visit a friend back in West Virginia. They end up being held at this location due to an unexpected death. Torie is implicated and has to prove she could not have had a motive to kill the victim. There are a lot of twist in the characters' background.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of the story The Hound of Baskervilles, A Misty Mourning is an intriguing mystery about inheritance and long-kept secrets that is also informative about the historical plight of coal miners in Appalachia. This book was slower paced than the previous three Torie O'Shea mysteries in the series but still worth the read. I look forward to reading the fifth book in the series, which will take place back in Torie's little hometown in Missouri.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

ill bk- Torie is 7 months pregnant and travel to West Va. to learn of her mother's family in an coal mining town- Her great grandmother died young but her best friend is 101 and wants to share family secrets with Birdie's family- of course the old women is murdered and Torie is in the middle a bit over the top but a good story

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of books is a joy to read. If you like a light mystery where the murder isn't too morbid or the killer isn't too psychotic [as in a Mary Higgens Clark book] these are good books to read. I enjoy them to relax my mind after reading some of these gore thrillers. The only complaint I have is that her books are hard to find!

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hesitant to pick up the next book in the series because I didn't like the language in the last one. So I was very relieved and happy that this one was much improved. It is a great whodunit that kept me interested and entertained throughout.”

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these books, but I sometimes get impatient with the main character. She's a bit annoying. I think she's supposed to be annoying, but lovable. However, the lovable doesn't always come through.

[Lesley Looper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this one, mostly because of my interest in genealogy. I liked how Torie and her long lost cousin Elliot (a librarian!) were able to work together to solve the mystery, thanks in part to their genealogy/family history research skills!

[Linda Klinedinst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a excellent book...a really good Mystery to read. This is Book #4 in the Torie O'Shea Mystery Series. There are 11 books total in this series. I am planning to have all of these books in this series.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed meeting Torie O'Shea. She is smart and has a great sense of humor. I found myself actually laughing out loud a few times. Good mystery, fun characters and enough excitement to keep things interesting. I will be reading the next book in the series soon.

[Marcy Evick · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of typos in this book which were annoying.... (Like, for some reason, everywhere the word 'die' should appear it has been replaced with 'the'?). But if you are interested in WV, coal mining history, and mystery... It's a nice read.