|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Three murders have occurred on Fogge Island, and the Bay City police have decided to call in an outside consultant. Since almost everyone on Fogge Island is related to everyone else, Mort Sinclair, forensic genealogist is the expert so hired. Sinclair starts by going to the genealogical library and researching the island inbreeding. (Consanguinity isn't limited to Maggody, Arkansas ) The leading family on the island, the Gorges, are directly related to the original owners of the island, the Fogge family, which died out in the 19th century, but not before marrying into both the Dudley and Gorges families. Ferdinand Gorges, son of Senator Atherton Gorges, was the first victim. The third was Esther, Atherton's niece. The odd man out was the second to die, Jacob "Cobber" Palgrave, the town drunk, who owned a disreputable cottage on a very posh part of the island, and apparently not related to the Gorges family. The Senator, a truly unlikeable man who plans to run for higher office, asks Sinclair to research his background and see if there is anything in his past that would come out during a national campaign and damage his reputation. Mort reluctantly agrees, with the proviso that this second investigation must not interfere with his primary responsibility to the police. In order to fulfill both contracts, Sinclair continues his genealogical research and also goes back into newspaper files to find out all he can about the island and its residents. The book is very dense and complicated, but Stratton provides a list of characters at the front and several genealogical charts in the back. Many of us enjoy delving into our own ancestry, and this book is both an entertaining mystery peopled with engaging characters, and a primer on basic research into family history. It has been in print for 14 years. Quite a feat in today's disposable world.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, December 2002
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
