A Veiled Antiquity
A Torie O'Shea Mystery
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Torie O'Shea investigates the tangled roots of an ancient family tree.
Torie O'Shea-- genealogist and amateur sleuth-- is having a killer of a day. The town gossip spreads the word that her sweet wheelchair-bound mother is having an affair--with the sheriff! Then quiet Marie Dijon is found dead at the foot of her basement stairs. Did she fall? Was she pushed? All Torie knows is that Marie had a family tree with royal roots completely foreign to a folksy Middle America town like New Kassel, Missouri. As foreign as, say...murder.
But nosiness in New Kassel is as native as the upcoming Oktoberfest. To Torie, the open door to Marie's house is more tempting than chocolate. Finding a hidden key and old documents in French make further investigating irresistible. But while juggling her growing suspicions, a hectic job at the historical society, two kids, and a sexy husband, Torie overlooks the obvious. Curiosity killed the cat. Someone killed Marie Dijon. And now Torie might know too much to live...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Missouri historical tour guide and genealogist Torie O'Shea (Family Skeletons, 1997) brings down-home sensibilities and acute insights into small-town life when she investigates the death of a reclusive woman whose body is found at the bottom of her basement steps. Although the woman was not a native of New Kassel, Torie is surprised at the lack of kinfolk at the funeral and at the woman's will, which states that no one outside the town can bid on her antiques-filled house. Poking into the woman's home while doing a little informal detecting, Torie finds a key and some old documents written in French taped to the underside of the kitchen table. She and the sheriff are stunned when the woman's documents appear to point to the identity of the famous man in the iron mask. What, they ask themselves, would someone in a small Missouri town be doing with such valuable letters? While it may be overreaching to pose the answer to that well-known French conundrum in a small middle-American town, MacPherson's genial exploration of village relationships and neighborly nuances carries its own raison d'etre.
