Customer Reviews

A Veiled Antiquity

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

 

 

This is a wonderful and humorous novel. There were some passages so funny, I had to put the book aside to laugh. Torie O'Shea is a great heroine - someone with whom the reader can truly identify. I can't wait to start MacPherson's next mystery.

I had so much fun reading this book. I picked it up because the author is from St. Louis, but don't be mislead, this book does NOT take place in St. Louis if you are looking for a book about that city. In fact, she only visits one small section of a St. Louis neighborhood with about a paragraph and a half devoted to it's description, which was right on. Otherwise, it takes place in a fictitious town that I wish was real so that I could visit it. She puts forth a well researched THEORY on the subject matter in the book. It made me so interested in it, in fact, I went and checked out books on it in the library. I think that's what I liked about it was that she pokes fun at historical theories while at the same time putting forth her own. MacPherson's books are a great get-away from reality and other heavy, depressing books. She delivers exactly what is expected of her...a tongue in cheek COZY!!! Can't wait for the next one this summer.

A Veiled Antiquity leaves you wanting to know more about Torie O'Shea and those who surround her in New Kassel, Missouri.

There are good clues dropped along the way and interesting hints in to the lives of the characters in this little town just a hop skip and a jump outside of St. Louis.

Again the only problem with finishing a brand new book is that one has to wait so long before the next one comes out. Sometimes it's better to read authors whose series have been around for a while and you can immerse yourself in several before you have to suffer the pains and agonies of waiting for new releases. Rett MacPherson makes me wish she had been published much earlier.

This is the second book in the Torie O'Shea series, and I'm not sure what I think of it yet. It is definitely a cozy series, and I like the genealogy and history links. But I don't find that I'm relating to any of the characters yet (including Torie herself). It would be better if she wasn't a mother of two young girls because I don't think that relationship is portrayed honestly in this series. The kids seem almost secondary to everything and to Torie herself. I find her annoying rather than charming. There are a lot of coincidences and weak links in the book as well. This means that the plot suffers and there doesn't seem to be a build up of suspense. I think I'll give one other book a try to see if it manages to pull me in a bit more because I kind of enjoyed the first book. Certainly moe than I did this one anyway.

Book Two in the Torie O'Shea series. This time Torie finds mysterious documents in the home of Marie who, it appears, did not fall down her stairs by accident. This combined with a twisty plot and a pseudo history lesson in the same vein at the Knights Templar make for an interesting book.

As with the other work by this author, I enjoyed it. This is a very low keyed work which is funny and with good character development. I did note some inconsistencies in this one, some slips by the author, but that is actually part of the fun of reading these things. All in all this was a very good book and I enjoyed every word of it. Well done. It is nice to get away from heavy reading and simply enjoy a good story. Hope we get more. Recommend this one. I would just like to add, in reference to the supposed errors in the text. These errors do not in anyway take away from the story. As most people, normal people that is, avoid St. Louis like the plague and actually drive miles and miles just to go around it, I doubt that many will pick up on these. It is a well know fact in the State of Missouri that the people who live in St. Louis feel it is more or less the center of the universe. We let them continue with this self deception as it causes them to rather stay there and pester the rest of the surrounding area.

Don Blankenship

The Ozarks

Marie Dijon was a new resident of New Kasel, Missouri when she fell down some basement stairs in her home and died. The dead woman's will is strange as no one outside of the townsfolk can bid on her house of antiques. Just as weird is that no family member shows up for the funeral.

Historical guide and genealogist Torie O'Shea cannot resist digging into the deceased's background. She starts inside Marie's home where she finds some apparently valuable French letters, making her wonder why these would be hidden in the middle of small town Missouri? Torie begins to wonder if a murder has been committed though she continues to investigate even as she struggles to maintain an assemblage of order in her personal life.

The second O'Shea amateur sleuth story is, like its predecessor FAMILY SKELETONS, a fun filled look into genealogy and small town Midwest relationships. Torie is a great character whose struggles with her professional and personal lives, and her over-abundant curiositywhich seems to always lead her into mystery investigations. Her family adds much depth to this charming who-done-it. A VEILED ANTIQUITY is an interesting tale that will be well received by fans of the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

This is only the second book that I have read by this author. The mystery line was very good, but the ending--well, there didn't seem to really be an ending! So this was a disappointment. I hope that her other books in this series don't follow this pattern. There's a lot of info here about the history of French royalty, etc. I have no knowledge of this subject matter so don't know if the presentation is accurate or not.

Although Rett MacPherson claims to live in St. Louis, she clearly doesn't know much about the town. Errors in fact, not only about St. Louis, but about history in general, mar this little mystery, and a somewhat clunky style and an ambiguous, rushed ending do more to make it a second-rater. Wait for the paperback, if you must buy this one.