Books

Tangled Roots  
Accompany Alex on her attempt to unravel a family tree that proves to have more branches than she bargained for, not to mention a murderer, a misappropriated fortune, and a family secret someone is willing to kill for!  As she grapples with this unwieldy job, she is also trying to learn to get to know her mother, whom tragedy separated from her as a teenager.  A recent convert to the Church, she is still trying to trust God and discover the true essence of forgiveness.  On top of all these issues, she also has serious conflicts in matters of the heart.  Should she marry the charming Englishman Charles, who courts her so exquisitely, or the down-to-earth Daniel who knows her better than anyone?

Click here to read excerpt from Tangled Roots

The Arthurian Omen  
In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark, The Arthurian Omen takes Maren Southcott to Wales on a hunt for an ancient manuscript that precipitated her sister's murder. Her own life in peril, she is also dodging a stalker/psychopath who is fomenting a Welsh revolution. Darting from castle to monastery in search of this relic that could prove the identity of King Arthur, she is unprepared for tragedy to strike at the heart of her family, impelling her to find the manuscript before MI5, Scotland Yard, her former husband, and a Celtic professor with extraordinary eyes.

Click here to read an excerpt from The Arthurian Omen

Cankered Roots  
Because I am a genealogy enthusiast, my mysteries naturally feature genealogy sleuths—Alexandra Campbell and Brighamina Poulson.  Alex reunites with her parents for the first time in eighteen years, and the result is murder!  In order to solve it, she and Briggie have to uncover the secrets in her own family tree, discovering in the process why she was sent away to Paris at age eighteen.  She is still grieving over the death of her husband, but is powerfully attracted to Daniel Grinnell, a psychotherapist who knows just a little too much about her for comfort.

Of Deadly Descent  
Alex and Briggie go to France and then to Oxford, on the track of cousins Alex  discovered in Cankered Roots who will possibly disinherit her.  They scarcely arrive in Oxford before one of her cousins is killed.  Was it murder?  Did it have anything to do with their search?  If so, who even knew they were coming?  While trying to answer these questions, they uncover among her relatives a number of secrets someone would kill for.  In the midst of her sleuthing, Alex attracts the attention of Charles Lamb, an impossibly handsome bachelor who is used to having women fall at his feet.

Voices In Your Blood: Discovering Identity Through Family History   
Because I am a mystery enthusiast, this how-to genealogy book is written as a mystery.  It is currently out of print, but can often be found on-line.  It needs to be updated to account for modern technology (it was written in 1993), and I have been asked to do a new edition, but haven’t done it yet!

Poisoned Pedigree
Is there such a thing as “bad blood?”  Take a rifle-toting grandmother and a recently engaged young widow, combine with a passion for genealogy, and you have RootSearch, Inc, dedicated to unraveling complicated family trees.  The most recent client of Alexandra Campbell and her associate, Briggie, is a famous singer who at the age of thirty-seven wants to marry and have a family but is terrified by childhood memories of whispers of a family curse and “bad blood.”   The investigation leads to a remote Ozarks town and a strange woman known as the Keeper, who holds secrets that turn out to be deadly.  Her sudden murder leaves Alex and Briggie no alternative but to piece together the mystery of a 150-year old scrapbook and tombstones in the local cemetery with cryptic references to a lynching.  It takes all of Alex and Briggie’s ingenuity to discover the source of the “bad blood” and escape death deep in the Missouri woods.

Click here to read an excerpt from Poisoned Pedigree