Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Book Review: "Death Finds A Way: A Janie Riley Mystery" by Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Geneablogger and friend Lorine McGinnis Schulze has written a genealogy mystery book for all of us to enjoy.


The back cover for Death Finds A Way: A Janie Riley Mystery describes it as:
"Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. With her husband Steven, Janie heads to Salt Lake City Utah to track down her elusive fourth great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to more than she bargained for. Her discovery of a dark secret brings her closer to danger. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present, and untangle a web of lies before disaster strikes?"
Well, yes, she can and does, and quite well.  The plot seems simple at first, but easily grows more complex, and disaster strikes.  There are mysterious men in the Family History Library, and Janie's neighbor at the microfilm machines has problems with her husband and her client research.  Janie can't help herself and commiserates with her FHL neighbor and gets sucked into the ongoing drama.  I'm not sure that Janie ever found what she was looking for at the FHL, but I know that she found herself in the middle of a lot of trouble.  I won't spoil any of the surprises in this book.  

The book is necessarily set in Salt Lake City, and there are mentions of the hotels and restaurants that I know and have heard about.  The FHL is depicted accurately, although the description may be a bit dated because of the recent modifications in the past year.  But that's OK - it's only a setting that enables the plot to twist in mysterious ways.  

 Janie's husband, Steven, is a prince in my humble opinion, but helpless to keep his wife from getting involved.  I also read things about male-female relationships and attitudes that I was surprised by - Lorine has a great imagination, and/or a lot of experiences.

I found myself wondering if I would do some of the actions that Janie took and I doubt that I would.  I try to avoid trouble and getting involved in the business of other people, especially in a library quiet zone and under a research deadline.  

All in all, this was an enjoyable read, with enough genealogy research mixed into the drama to hold my interest to the end.  I was happy to see that Janie used several of my favorite research record types to solve the genealogy puzzle part of the story.  

If you like mysteries (and what genealogist doesn't?), I recommend this book.

Death Finds A Way: A Janie Riley Mystery is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.  

Disclosure:  I was gifted a paperbook version of the book by the author and committed to writing a review on my blog.  


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver


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