Patricia Sprinkle

Good mystery, lots of clues and some suspense. I liked the characters and the flow of the story for the first two-thirds of the book. I was really excited that I had found another, new to me, author and series and was enjoying the story. Then it just started to fizzle out - the characters changed personality, the story lost its direction, and it stuttered along to the end.

I like the thought of combining genealogy (one of my favorite hobbies) with mysteries (one of my favorite genres). I could also apreciate the Atlanta setting, since I was born there and have visited the city a number of times since.

That being said, I wish this story had utilized more genealogical sleuthing. The protagonist just gets introduced to genealogy in this book, and she doesn't do much of it. The research she does do is primarily for a family that's not her own, but that of an show more "adopted" aunt.

Since this is the first of three (so far) books in Sprinkle's "A Family Tree Mystery" series, I can see how this book could serve as the protagonist's introduction to genealogy. I liked this book enough to pick up the next two in the series and see how the genealogy line plays out. show less

This is the second book by Patricia Sprinkle that I have read. (Who invited the Dead Man? was the third in this series I read first.) What catches me is her titles - When did we lose Harriet? Harriet somehow is the central character of this mystery but we only see her in the first two chapters. The remainder of the story has MacLaren Yarbrough searching for this young girl she has never met.
Mac comes home to Montgomery Alabama because her baby brother, Jake (late 50's) has a heart attack show more and is being ornery about having surgery. Mac is called upon to take his place at the teen center where she discovers a library book filled with $3000 cash. She determines that it belongs to a girl named Harriet and sets out to return them to the owner. Along the way she finds person after person, who can't even remember the last time that they saw Harriet and she is amazed at their lack of concern for someone that they are responsible for. Mac manages throughout her search to find out where Harriet got the money, what she wanted to do with the money, and eventually where to find Harriet. This is an excellently written mystery that confounds the reader until the very end. All the clues are subtly distributed throughout. I will definitely be looking for the next in the series. show less

I'm not sure Katherine Murray, heroine of Patricia Sprinkle's Family Tree mystery series, will ever get around to researching her own family, since she keeps getting caught up in other people's searches. This time out, it's Dr. Flo Gadney, retired Spelman professor, who asks her help in finding out whether some graves on a Georgia sea island belong to her ancestors. An amazing find of the type every genealogist longs for leads to murder and tragedy. Well-drawn characters and a thrilling plot show more make this a worthy second entry in the series. I especially enjoyed the setting. show less