Daughter of Deceit: A Family Tree Mystery

by: Patricia Sprinkle

Published by: Avon Books

Reviewed by Knevits Stephens

Bara Weidenauer is having a hard time. Her husband Foley is asking for a divorce and wants half of everything. He has frozen her bank accounts, credit cards and had all items in the house appraised and listed so she cannot sell them. She believes he will take her for every penny she has, and to make matters worse, he is seeing their former maid. After being sober for a long time, Bara has taken up drinking again.

Bara’s father committed suicide a little while ago. She stored his belongings in a storage unit. She goes to the unit to look through her father’s things for money for groceries. She comes across her dad’s military medals.

Katharine Murray is recovering from her house being vandalized. She has been redoing her house, getting it ready for a big party. That is until Bara comes into Katharine’s life.

Bara decides to have the medals framed for her grandson Chip. Someone gives her the idea to ask Katharine to see what the medals mean so that when Chip is older, he will know what kind of man his great grandpa was.

Katharine gets to work on the medals–and it starts to get really interesting. Bara and she get together and go over the meaning of the medals and read the citations they found that go with some of them.

Foley is discovered dead and Bara is badly beaten up with lots of broken bones. When the police look at Bara as the only suspect in Foley’s death, Katharine starts her own investigating. She is questioning people and revealing a family secret that has been hidden for lots of years.

I really liked this series. This is the first one I have read by Patricia Sprinkle but I will be sure to read the others. I find the background interesting when they are searching for people as well as items. I was really drawn into the book and the characters became real to me as they are real down-to-earth people like us. Some of the characters are wealthy, but still have the same problems as others.

Armchair Interviews says: Another good offering from Patricia Sprinkle.

Author’s Web site: http://www.PatriciaSprinkle.com