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PALE AS THE DEAD
by Fiona Mountain
Thomas Dunne Books, July 2004
288 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312323239


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Natasha Blake and her dog Boris are watching Adam Mason photographing Bethany Marshall as a drowning woman, in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Natasha is a genealogist and Bethany wants Natasha to trace her heritage. She is convinced that she is descended from Lizzie Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rosetti's model and wife, who committed suicide.

When Bethany disappears, leaving behind an old diary, Adam Mason asks Natasha to search for Bethany. Adam is a bit of a conundrum himself. He is doing a series of photos mimicking the poses and settings of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. But then he appears to be coming on to Natasha . . . or is he? Natasha is sure that, whether descended from Siddal or not, Bethany is going to follow in her footsteps and commit suicide, else why leave her most prized possession behind?

By calling on her network of friends and colleagues, Natasha takes the clues that are found in the diary, and determines who must have been the author . . . not a relative of Lizzie Siddal, but the daughter of the doctor who saw her in her final days.

Natasha feels very close to Bethany because Natasha doesn't know her own parents. She was a left on the church steps wrapped in a shawl, and, although adopted by an archeologist and his wife, who brought her up and loved her as their own, they didn't tell her of her unknown heritage until she was grown, and she wants desperately to learn of her own family. Bethany, although brought up by her birth parents, also feels there is something missing. And Natasha is determined to find that missing link.

This is a fine first mystery. The links to the creepy Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the mysterious origins of both Natasha and Bethany make for a compelling book.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, September 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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