Tag Archives: Fiona Mountain

#BookReview ‘Bloodline’ by @FionaMountain #geneaology #mystery

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Bloodline by Fiona Mountain is a combination of genealogical mystery, murder investigation and historical examination of the Nazis. The second Natasha Blake mystery, it covers a lot of ground from its seemingly innocuous starting point when Natasha hands in her report to a client. But nothing is mentioned lightly in this book, everything has a meaning. Fiona MountainNatasha is not sure why Charles Seagrove requested this particular family tree, but knows he is unrelated to any of the people featured. The real reason for Seagrove’s interest in genealogy is at the heart of this storyline. There are many dead ends and I admit to losing track of who was who at one point but Mountain ties all the loose endings together so there is clarity at the end. At first, Natasha is simply conducting another genealogical research but everything changes when she receives an anonymous note, ‘Cinderella is in the bluebell woods at Poacher’s Dell’. Once her client is murdered with his own shotgun, Natasha feels threatened as well as puzzled.
There are many storylines to be connected including Charles Seagrove’s grand-daughter Rosa and her father Richard, Second World War land girls, and two soldiers – one German, one English – who meet in the trenches during the Christmas truce of 1914. This is a lot to handle but Mountain manages the complicated history with ease and I enjoyed trying to work out the solution.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

And here’s my review of the first book in the Natasha Blake series:-
PALE AS THE DEAD

If you like this, try:-
‘The Lost Ancestor’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin
‘Deadly Descent’ by Charlotte Hinger
‘Blood-Tied’ by Wendy Percival

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BLOODLINE by @FionaMountain via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2oY

#BookReview ‘Pale as the Dead’ by @FionaMountain #geneaology #mystery

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Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain is an unusual mix of genealogy mystery and history, centred on the glamorous Pre-Raphaelite artists and Lizzie Siddal, the girl in the famous ‘Ophelia’ painting. Fiona MountainAncestry detective Natasha Blake meets a mysterious, beautiful young woman, Bethany, who is re-enacting the Lizzie Siddal scene for a photographer. Bethany confides in Natasha her fear that her family is cursed following the deaths of her sister and mother. After asking Natasha to research her family tree, Bethany goes missing. Has she run from a failing love affair, committed suicide, or has she been murdered?
The trail is cold. Natasha must turn detective in two senses: she searches the birth, marriage and death records, census returns and wills, to find Natasha’s ancestors; at the same time, she is being followed by someone driving a red Celica. Adam, the photographer, is also Bethany’s boyfriend but Natasha feels there is more to his story than he is telling.
The narrative wandered rather from the central story, complicated unnecessarily by Natasha’s own history and love life which added little. Perhaps this could have been avoided by telling part of the story from Lizzie Siddal’s point of view. There were so many peripheral characters, both in the present time and the historical story, that at times I lost my way. I was also unconvinced by the threat to Natasha – the red car, the break-in. These jarred, almost as if added as an afterthought to appeal to lovers of crime fiction which I think was unnecessary. The kernel of the story about Bethany and Lizzie is fascinating in its own right.

And here’s my review of the second book in the Natasha Blake series:-
BLOODLINE

If you like this, try:-
‘Deadly Descent’ by Charlotte Hinger
‘In the Blood’ by Steve Robinson
‘The Marriage Certificate’ by Stephen Molyneux

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview PALE AS THE DEAD by @FionaMountain http://wp.me/p5gEM4-23v via @SandraDanby