Death on the Family Tree is the first book in the Family Tree Mysteries by Patricia Sprinkle. The heroine, Katherine, is a new empty-nester whose husband works weekdays in DC, leaving her alone in their spacious home with not enough to do. She finds herself a little resentful of a world that revolves around a man who is seldom ever home, and at loose ends with her last child now living in China, and on her birthday, once again alone, she begins to turn the music room into an office for herself, changes her hair, and makes other alterations to her life.
At the same time, she receives a package containing things that had belonged to an honorary aunt who recently died. The box includes a journal written in German and a necklace that some experts believe could be very valuable. One expert, a former childhood boyfriend she hadn’t seen since she went away to college, begins moving himself into her life, a life which is already complicated by the fact that there seem to be a lot of people determined to get their hands on that necklace at any cost.
The heroine begins to develop an interest in family history, but as those of us who do it know, she learns family histories holds a lot of secrets, some of which may end up getting people killed.
This particular mystery is a bit complicated to do an Is It Clean review on, due to the fact that some of the issues involve the solution. I’ll try to be discreet, but recognize the issues are tightly woven into the story. For those who want no spoilers at all, I’ll tell you this and you can skip the rest of the review:
There is periodic mild swearing, no on-camera sex, no on-camera homosexuality. All sexual and homosexual situations happened back in the days when Hitler was terrorizing the world and are discussed, not shown. There is no gore. The story includes some religion and a lot of politics.
Is it clean?
Language: There is occassional mild swearing in the book.
Mysticism: Katherine periodically catches a reflection of people from long ago, and once has a dream or an experience in which she accompanies some people who lived centuries ago, when the necklace was made, as it is blessed and discussed. She is never sure if she really did see someone from the past or if it’s all her imagination. As an amateur genealogist, I often feel my ancestors looking over my shoulder when I’m researching, so to me, that’s an expected part of the life of a genealogy lover.
Relationships: Katherine is becoming unhappy with the status of her marriage, particularly when her husband decides at the last minute to stay in DC instead of coming home to celebrate her birthday, and then is too busy to take or return her call when she has a horrible experience. During this time, she begins spending time alone with her former boyfriend, having meals, swimming, and so forth and battles remnants of her past feelings for him. At one point, while they’re swimming in her pool, he decides she was “asking” for an affair and begins kissing her. She momentarily allows it and then stops it, telling him to leave. However, she ends up letting him hang around for a while longer. (Nothing further happens in that scene, however.) She repeatedly reminds him she’s married and so is he, although he and his wife are living apart at the moment. This sub-plot ends appropriately.
The historical mystery involves tramps and vamps, to use a phrase used in the book.
Homosexuality: This is to some extent a historical mystery that begins to impact the present, and there is mention of homosexuality in the past, during Hitler’s reign. Some characters in the book feel all homosexuals should be removed from the country; Katherine does not.
Politics: There are a lot of politics in the story and Katherine has many thoughts on political issues, largely in terms of social issues. She has disdain for some of the characters in the book, who are very, very far right, meaning they believe all minorities and homosexuals should be removed from the country, and they also believe they are rich because God loves them more and they are better people. Katherine was raised much differently, regularly doing service among the poor and respecting people of differing views. There is ocassional mention of gay rights, but not specifically which ones. Hitler and Communism both play a part in this story.
Religion: Katherine is a religious, church-going Southern woman. Her specific religion isn’t mentioned and there is only mention that she attended church on Sunday morning–we don’t go with her. Religion is spoken of very openly throughout the story, as a natural part of her life and thought process. I was pleasantly surprised at how openly religion could be integrated into a mainstream mystery. For instance when someone tells her he never cared about God, she tells him God has always cared about him.
From the book:
“Surely you don’t refer to the Devil? I don’t believe in fairy tales.”
“Some fairy tales are ancient truths in fancy trappings. And truths in which we don’t believe can be our downfall.” (I love that last sentence.)
The second sentence is Katherine speaking.
Gore: None. People died in the past and some die in the present, but there is no gore.
Brief Review: This was a very tightly-woven mystery, one of the better constructed mysteries I’ve read in a very long time. It was extremely complex and the character list at the front would have been helpful if I had been reading the book in print instead of on my Nook, which makes it hard to flip back and forth. However, I have trouble keeping track of people in real life, so that’s probably more about me than the book.
There were a few loose ends, but since this is the first book in the series, I presume some of them are there to set up the series for the future.
Being a middle-aged empty nester myself, I can identify with the protagonist. There comes a baffling moment when your job comes to an end and you wonder not just what you’re going to do next, but who you’re going to be. This is probably more true for homemakers, who have been Mom as their primary, or even only, identity. Younger readers, or mothers who are employed in outside careers may find Katherine’s sudden awakening to the fact that she needs her own identity and a new lifestyle confusing, but for those who have been there, Katherine is a very sympathetic character, and she shows every sign of figuring this all out. To this day, I remember the moment I realized one child was about to marry, one was in college and the youngest was educating himself with no help from me and almost ready for college himself. I’d listed Homeschool Mom as my job title for so long, I panicked, wondering what I was supposed to answer now. (I got offered a book contract shortly after that day, which answered my question, but for a few weeks, I felt completely lost as to who I was.)
The mystery centers around genealogy, and I’m a genealogy fan. Readers will get a light introduction to genealogical research, which presumably continues as Katherine learns more. It’s a fascinating look at how the past affects the present.
Katherine is a well-developed character who is not complete and perfect, leaving room for personal growth as the series progresses. She has an interesting range of friends and family to provide the flavor for the series. As the wife of a traveling consultant, there were times when I wanted to throw something at her and say, “Here’s how you need to fix your unhappiness” but then again, if she already knew how to do it, the subplot wouldn’t have been possible and there would be no room for growth in the future. She seemed to come to an awareness that maybe she was a contributing factor to her husband’s behavior–not that he was even remotely blameless–but she takes action at the end and starts toward getting things on track.
I thought I’d figured out the ending, but I was somewhat off-track. However, when I saw who the “bad guy” was, it made sense and I didn’t need to have it all explained to me, as I usually do, being a bit dense.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and messed up my whole work schedule reading it (all the while pretending I had to get the review up so it was justified.) I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, so I can find out what Katherine does with all the new things she’s learned about herself as she began poking around the family tree.