Death Goes Dutch

My first book by Albert Bell Jr was "The Blood of Caesar" which is a great mystery set in the Roman Empire. I started to research his other books and ended up borrowing "Death goes Dutch" from the local library. From the very beginning, Death Goes Dutch keeps the suspense going with Sarah not being convinced about Josh's background. She is an amateur sleuth in addition to being a psycologist and her little adventures hold the reader's interest till the last page. In short, this is an author I am going to be watching over the years and hoping that he churns out good ones like these in future.

An interesting story about a man that is faced with proving his identity to his adoptive family. Written in first person from the point of view of a woman that is trying to help him, Death Goes Dutch is definitely an interesting story. The main character Sarah tries to help Josh prove his identity to his less than welcoming family and discovers family secrets along the way that definitely make this book a page turner. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes mysteries.

Sarah DeGraaf works for an agency that reunites adoptees with their biological parents, a cause close to her heart as she herself was adopted and knows only that her mother was Korean and that her father was an American soldier. Raised in a primarily Dutch community in Grand Rapids, she's always felt out of place, a feeling she shares with many of her fellow adoptees. When she takes the case of Joshua Adams, she finds herself becoming too emotionally invested in the young man, especially when she discovers that his mother died under suspicious circumstances. However, her wariness grows when appears that there is a healthy trust fund at stake and that Josh has a habit of being selective with the truth. When Josh's possibly biological relatives begin to attack both Josh and Sarah, the two find themselves in danger of losing their jobs, their freedom, and their lives. While the story of a lost heir and suspicious relatives may not seem that original, the twists that Bell adds make this a very surprising and enjoyable read. Sarah herself is very likeable, and the shaky relationship she has with her policeman ex-boyfriend is handled realistically and not forced into the story. One thing I would like to have seen more of is her relationship with her Dutch family, who love her and have made her one of the lucky recipients of an adoptive family. Hopefully Bell will achieve this in future, much-anticipated, installments in this very promising series.