Fatal Family Ties by S.C. Perkins

 

First Line: I was angling my taco toward my mouth with the speed of the ravenous when a voice made me nearly fall off my barstool.

 

When Camilla Braithwaite tracks Lucy Lancaster down at her favorite Austin restaurant and asks for her help, the normally sunny dispositioned Lucy doesn't jump at the chance. You see, Camilla was one of three women who made her life miserable at her former job. Memories like that don't just fade away.

 

Lucy would prefer to spend her time with Ben, an agent with the FBI, but the lure of proving a magazine article wrong about Camilla's Civil War veteran ancestor is too irresistible.

 

One of the first things Camilla does is to take Lucy to the Texas History Museum and the exhibit on her Civil War veteran ancestor. That's when Lucy learns about a triptych painting that the man did, and which has been passed down in the family through the generations. One of the panels is missing, but Camilla takes Lucy to see the one in her uncle's possession-- and that visit is a catalyst for calamity. A member of the Braithwaite family is found murdered and another panel of the painting disappears. Something's wrong here, and Lucy Lancaster, ancestry detective, will not rest until she finds out what it is.

 

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Whenever I need a change from the grittier mysteries and thrillers that I read, there are a few cozy series that I enjoy, and S.C. Perkins' Ancestry Detective mysteries are right at the top of my list. Fatal Family Ties is the excellent third entry in a series that doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

 

The mystery is a good one. The bad guys are rather easy to pick out of a lineup, but why they're working together and how is what really fuels the mystery. The other thing that puts the zing into sleuthing is the historical tidbits that Perkins adds-- how tricky it can be to decipher Civil War military records, for example, or the burial practices involving soldiers. (Now, that last one may seem morbid to some, but it is important to the plot, and I found it interesting because one of my ancestors died in battle in Tennessee and his body had to be transported to southern Illinois.) There's also a bit of art restoration in Fatal Family Ties, which I always find fascinating.

But of course, when you talk cozies, you've got to talk character because the characters are what bind everything together. I really like Lucy Lancaster, her friendly, open disposition, her willingness to help others, her passion and talent for her work. She listens to and works with the police-- not against them-- and she never intentionally does anything dangerous or stupid. It doesn't hurt that her boyfriend, Ben Turner, is an FBI agent, and it also doesn't hurt that Ben realizes she has a talent for rooting out important clues. Besides a smart, handsome boyfriend, Lucy also has two great friends, a supportive family, and a grandfather who was a spy and has a penchant for terrific neckties. 

If you're in the mood for a mystery that involves some history and a little art theft, a mystery that's full of good people doing the right thing for the right reasons, a mystery that can make you smile and just plain feel good, pick up Fatal Family Ties. It can be read as a standalone, but don't be surprised if you find yourself looking for the other two, Murder Once Removed and Lineage Most Lethal.

 

Fatal Family Ties by S.C. Perkins

eISBN: 9781250789655

Minotaur Books © 2021

eBook, 320 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #3 Ancestry Detective mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Lineage Most Lethal by S.C. Perkins

First Line: "Stop," I begged. "Please."

Hotel heiress Pippa Sutton has invited genealogist Lucy Lancaster to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's at the swanky Hotel Sutton. Lucy will be relaxing, but she'll also be putting the finishing touches on her presentation for Pippa and her family. Things take a turn for the bizarre when a man staggers up to her outside the hotel, presses a classic Montblanc pen into her hand, collapses, and dies.

Since Lucy's grandfather is an avid Montblanc collector, she takes the pen to him. Not only does he recognize the pen, he reveals the fact that he was an Allied spy during World War II. The pen is a message regarding one of his wartime missions.

When people begin dying whose names happen to be on a microdot found in the pen, Lucy has to work fast-- her beloved grandfather's life is in jeopardy.

S.C. Perkins' Ancestry Detective mystery series is turning out to be delightful. Lucy Lancaster is one bright woman who, after the events in the first book in the series (Murder Once Removed), took a CPR class, a self-defense class, and went to a counselor. So many amateur sleuths never seem to take these precautions, so I always appreciate it when I see it happen. Lucy also keeps going to the police with the information she uncovers even though she's not being taken seriously.

Readers learn quite a bit about Lucy's grandfather in Lineage Most Lethal. It seems the old man has been keeping quite a few secrets under wraps. There are even codes to decipher which I always enjoy. Having helped my mother and grandmother with our family history, I was intrigued by Lucy's use of something called Soundex, a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound as pronounced in English. If my mother had known about Soundex, she might have been able to trace a very elusive family name. Who says you can't learn anything by reading mysteries?

World War II, spies, secret missions, microdots, codes, and a lead character who makes me smile. I can't wait to see what Lucy Lancaster gets up to in her next adventure.

Lineage Most Lethal by S.C. Perkins

eISBN: 9781250750082

Minotaur Books © 2020

eBook, 336 pages

Cozy Mystery, #2 Ancestry Detective mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Murder Once Removed by S.C. Perkins

First Line: The knife had pierced Seth Halloran's heart, exactly at the spot that would stop it cold.

Genealogist Lucy Lancaster loves tacos; she loves Austin, Texas; and she certainly loves her business, Ancestry Investigations. She considered proving a Texas billionaire's great-great-grandfather was murdered a highlight of her career until the billionaire jumps the gun and names his grandfather's killer on air.

There's no proof that an ancestor of Senator Daniel Applewhite killed Seth Halloran; nevertheless, houses start getting broken into, artifacts are stolen, a former co-worker of Lucy's is murdered, and Lucy herself is threatened. This genealogist had no idea that shaking the branches of some family trees could prove to be so deadly.

Murder Once Removed is the first in the promising Ancestry Detective cozy series set in Texas. Author S.C. Perkins used her setting to perfect advantage: not only did I want to book a flight to Austin for a visit, but she also made me crave Mexican food. (Thank heaven Big Flaco's Tacos isn't here!)

Another strong part of her setting is the old office building in which Lucy shares space with her two best friends, Serena the personal shopper and British Josephine who's a translator. Perkins has set up a good supporting cast for Lucy which also includes Juan "Big Flaco" Medrano (the food magician, yum) and NPH-- Neil Patrick Housecat-- among others. The cast might get even larger if some of the family members who were mentioned return from their travels in future books.

The mystery is a good one in Murder Once Removed, plenty of misdirection and red herrings, and I enjoyed trying to figure it out. But there were a couple of things that I didn't enjoy quite so much. Lucy is not supposed to be a fashionista-- preferring to wear jeans and t-shirts to work-- but readers are given a blow-by-blow description of everyone's physical appearance and wardrobe. All the needless detail slows down the pace of the book. There's also a rather run-of-the-mill romantic interest for Lucy-- the gorgeous law enforcement guy who rubs her fur the wrong way-- that really wasn't necessary. Just once, I wish the main character would fall for a homely guy who wasn't licensed to carry any deadly weapons, you know?

Thankfully, the mystery, Lucy and her gang, and the Austin setting rose above the wordy descriptions and ho-hum romance. I'm looking forward to seeing what family tree Lucy shakes next.

Murder Once Removed by S.C. Perkins

ISBN: 9781250189035

Minotaur Books © 2019

Hardcover, 336 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Ancestry Detective mystery

Rating: B

Source: the publisher & NetGalley