Killing Cousins

Torie O'Shea has just given birth to their third child, a son. And her mother has just married the town sheriff Colin Brooke. Torie and Colin don't get along great. So, she's surprised when he asks her to sort through the antiques and junk in the estate of Catherine Finch, a long-time New Kassell resident. Turns out he's a budding antiques dealer and since he and her mother are going on a cruise for their honeymoon, he can't do the sorting himself. Apparently there is a rush to get it completed. As town historian, Torie had just been requested to write a biography of Catherine Finch. She was a popular jazz singer in the 1930s. Torie sees this as a way to learn more for her biography and agrees to help out the sheriff. She soon discovers that Catherine never recovered from the abduction of their baby son in 1938. He was never found. A stranger is found in an abandoned building in town. When it is discovered that he is a relative of Catherine Finch, Torie begins to wonder if his being in town and his death have anything to do with the sorting of Catherine's estate? As Torie digs further and further into Catherine's past, more things begin to happen. Are they related? Can Torie uncover the truth without putting anyone in harm's way? This was the first Torie O'Shea book that I have read. You can bet it won't be the last. I loved Torie and the other residents of New Kassell. The writing is superb. Torie is such a fun character. I had trouble putting this book down. I kept wanting to know what happened next. I highly recommend this book! Check out www.mysteryloverscorner.com [...]

Another pleasant read in a very pleasant series. I did feel that this was the weakest of the books already published in this series but I nevertheless enjoyed it. I did agree with on reviewer who felt that Tori was rather obnoxious in this one, but hopefully the author will get her back on track in the next. Again, I enjoyed it.

(Sung to the tune of the old Patty Duke Show theme song)..twists, turns danger and intrigue. How's does Torie do it? Great light reading.

Tori O'Shea's world has been turned upside down. Her mother is married to the thorn in her side, Sheriff Brook, she is suffering from post partem depression(or so her husband says), Sylvia Pershing has asked her to write a biography of a famous local woman, and the mayor is trying to introduce riverboat gambling to the town. One night she sees someone sneaking around the putative site of the casino, apparently he was trying to get inside a wall. He is found dead inside the abandoned house. When the old house is torn down, the remains of a baby are found inside the very same wall. A baby was kidnapped in the area in 1938 and never found. Since Colin and her mother are in Alaska and the deputy in charge is obviously in over his head, Tori helps to solve the mystery.This is always an entertaining series. The author uses the main character's vocation as a geneologist to blend a mystery from the past into the present. The characters are all very vivid and the story is great. I can't wait until the next book to find out how the vote on Riverboat Casinos went.

The reason why I'm quite addicted to this series is not because of the mystery at hand. Not that the mysteries in this series are boring! To the contrary, they are usually interesting ones, even if you sometimes wonder why no one else except Torie can ever solve these mysteries. No, the reason why I like this series is because of Tories' smart aleck asides and the wry humour with which Rett MacPherson writes these Torie O'Shea novels. Torie O'Shea, a genealogist from the small town of New Kassell, Missouri, is still coping with a hormonal overload from having recently given birth to a baby boy, as well as having just seen her mother married off to New Kassell's sheriff, Colin Brooke (and her own private nemesis); when she's approached by the town's matriarch, Sylvia Pershing, to write a biography about Catherine Finch. Finch, a denizen of New Kassell was a popular jazz singer from '30s, and has recently passed away. Coincidentally, it turns out that the sheriff, who also happens to be a budding antique dealer, has bought the contents of Catherine's estate. Because of a time constraint the sheriff needs to sort out what he's bought right away. However the sheriff is about to leave for his honeymoon, and so he asks Torie to go through Catherine's effects and sort out the junk from the valuable for him. It's an opportunity that Torie cannot say no to, esp given that she's already agreed to write Catherine's biography.Doing some basic research into Catherine's history Torie discovers that Catherine suffered a tragedy that she never recovered from -- her infant son was kidnapped from his cradle in 1938, and he was never found, dead or alive. It's a tragedy that resonates with Torie, and she's soon becomes immersed in trying to discover what happened to the Finch baby. And then a stranger is found dead in one of the abandoned houses in New Kassell, who turns out to be one of Catherine's relations. Could the man's presence have anything to do with the fact that Catherine's estate is being sorted out? And could he have had information about the missing Finch heir? Not to worry: you just know that Torie, who cannot help but poke her nose into everything, will discover all!Torie O'Shea is a rarity in the mystery novel world in that Rett MacPherson presents her to us warts and all. Torie is not perfect -- she frequently acts instinctively without thinking things through, and she is a busybody. She just has to know what's going on. The fact that Torie admits this basic fact about herself, allows us to empathise with, and to like her. As I noted before however, while the mysteries in this series are interesting and fun, they are rather straight forward. And after a while you have to wonder why only Torie has the imagination and the curiosity to get to the bottom of what's going on -- in this case what really happened to the Finch baby. But that is exactly what makes this series (and book) so readable: that Torie has the guts and determination to see things th