Customer Reviews

A Comedy of Heirs (Torie O'Shea Mysteries, No. 3)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In New Kassel, Missouri, genealogist Torie O'Shea wonders why she agreed to host her family's annual Christmas Party. Seventy relatives will soon invade the small town to attend the festivities. However, Torie's troubles take a wicked twist when an unmarked package of newspaper articles arrives at her house. The clippings claim that her great- uncle Jed murdered her great-grandfather. This contradicts the family account that her ancestor died in a hunting accident.

Though the incident occurred in 1948, Torie feels compelled to learn the truth. Being an expert at shaking a family's tree, Torie investigates her own kin. The documented evidence points to her relative as being an abusive individual commonly hated by all. First hand accounts from her living relatives affirm that information and add even more grisly accounts to the growing facts in which anyone alive five decades ago wanted Torie's great- grandfather dead.

The third Torie O'Shea mystery is a fabulous tale in which the genealogist looks inside her family for answers to an old mystery. The story line lives up to the title, COMEDY OF HEIRS, as the support cast are an eccentric, often humorous bunch. However, the plot actually goes beyond just a simple comedy as Torie never loses sight that murder may have happened with a conspiracy by her beloved family to hide the facts. Rett MacPherson provides readers with an innovative and entertaining who-done-it that readers will fully enjoy.

Harriet Klausner 7/27/99

Rett has done it again, given us a great little mystery to enjoy. I felt right at home with Tori and her family. Cousins, aunts and uncles crawling all over Tori's house for a family reunion and her reactions made me smile. Of course, Tori's reunion wouldn't be complete without the family skeltons and a murder. I love this series and can't wait to read Misty Mourning. I am hooked!

There is a lot to like about this book, which is the first one I have read by this author. I was drawn to it, 1/ because I love books where there is a decades old mystery to solve, and 2/ I love when that involves genealogy. I almost stopped reading it three times though, because I found the main character extremely annoying. I think the author intended to paint her as a 'zany' character of some sort, (and on that topic, I don't understand WHY it is that most Cozy Mysteries think there "HAS" to be zany comedy mixed in the story) but that part of it REALLY irritated me. Instead of a 30-something educated (historian/genealogist) mother of two (and one on the way), she came across (to me) as an immature, whiney, bitchy, redneck. At first anyway...she did seem to mellow a bit toward the end of the book. I liked all of the other characters though, but it's really sort of important that a reader like the "main" character. Ok, having gotten that out of the way, I'd like to say that I've read a LOT of mysteries in my day and this one had an excellent plot. Everything about this part of it, was top notch. The best parts of the book to me, were the detection scenes where Torie was delving into the past via her intensive research in libaries, old newspapers, etc. I did feel like the ending came together a bit too quickly, and a few things were explained in a rush, or not at all. There were two issues on which I felt I wanted more answers and explanation. But this didn't change my view that it was way, way above average. I'm really glad that I stuck with this one, because I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. I do hope however, that in future books Torie will act more like a classy lady, both in her speech and actions.

In this third outing, Torie finds that there has been a murder in her family tree, but could there also be a murderer? While hosting her annual family Christmas party / reunion, the whole clan turns up in New Kassel just the perfect occasion to find out who the killer could be and why. Both Torie and her mom have big plans coming up next summer so I can't wait to see what book #4 has to offer.

This is definitely a cozy, because the small town on the Mississippi River and the extended family that MacPherson describes make you want to live that kind of a life. Her detective is Torie, who is a wife and mother particularly family-oriented: she has a major interest in history and in particular, her own family's history (genealogy). She is hosting the annual family reunion for her father's family when the book begins, and the mystery centers around copies of newspaper articles that she receives anonymously in the mail -- articles about the murder of her great-grandfather (who she thought died in an accident). Torie decides to try to discover what happened, but she's haunted by the fear that it will turn out to be a member of her family -- who are in town for this reunion.

I was genuinely surprised by the solution to this crime, although it all made sense. This is my second book by this author and I intend to read more.

This is a nice, easy-going read. The author continues the Tori O'Shea series in fine form. Again, we have wonderful character developement, nice twists...all presented with a wonderful wit.

I highly recommend this one and the rest of the series. Well done!