The Blood Ballad: a Torie O’Shea Mystery
by: Rett MacPherson
Published by: St Martin's Minotaur
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
(11th in fascinating Torie O’Shea mysteries)
This tale is set in the country around St. Louis, Missouri. Torie works at the historical society in New Kassel, Missouri, and also runs a small museum of women’s textile arts in an historic home. She is a local historian and a genealogist, and a mother and wife.
While out birding with a friend, they are shot at–and run for their lives–only to have a trunk come crashing down a cliff, open at their feet and dump out a bloody body.
Later a descendant of the Scott Morgan musical clan comes to Torie with a CD which contains performances recorded years ago, with her grandfather as a young man playing with the famous Morgan family musicians. The introductions on the CD clearly state that her grandfather had written the songs, songs that Scott Morgan took credit for. During the Depression the small song royalties would have made a difference.
Then Torie’s eccentric cousin Phoebe arrives with some old letters to Scott Morgan, written by Torie’s great-grandmother. The letters chide him for his treatment of “the boy, who looks more like you than your own sons,” and mentions a woman named Peggy. Phoebe assumes that means that Torie’s grandfather was actually Scott Morgan’s son. Torie does some research and finds the mother and son, one of three known as ”˜other side of the blanket’ children that Scott Morgan fathered over the years.
The dead man in the trunk, Cliff Weaver, had mailed Torie a CD, containing more Morgan family music, including a solo by a woman claiming to have murdered Belle Morgan. Morgan had disappeared supposedly with a lover in the 1930s, abandoning her husband and children. Using the information in the “blood ballad,” as Torie calls it, she is able to direct the authorities to Belle’s body. She now has two mysteries to solve. Who murdered Cliff Weaver, and who murdered Belle, all those years ago? Are these deaths connected? Sheriff Mort Joachim actually welcomes Torie’s help with these cases.
While the family trees are complicated, the story is captivating. I especially enjoyed Torie’s family and her genealogical work. The author is a genealogist, too.
Armchair Interviews says: An outstanding series of cozy mysteries.
Author’s Web site: http://www.RettMacPherson.com
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