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A Promise to the Past: A Genealogical Mystery
James G. Brown
Writer's Digest $21.95pbk |
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Reviewed by Simon Fowler |
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Family history is like a
crime novel in that both are trying to solve a mystery - where
we came from or who shot the victim. Yet there are surprising
few books which try to combine the two. This is the first one
I've come across, and although it is flawed, it is certainly a
brave attempt.
David Baker, a successful Massachusetts
businessman, is motivated to start his genealogical research by
the death of his mother. In his search he meets Abigail Palmer
and between them they are drawn into the mystery of a beautiful
old house on the Maine coast, which was once owned by a common
ancestor. The house, naturally, is under threat from evil
developers.
The bad news is that the book is at least
100, perhaps 150, pages too long, with far too many irrelevant
characters, including a resident ghost, which does not add to
the story at all. The good news is that the ending is pretty
exciting and there are some nice attempts characterisations. But
the book is a fascinating study of the mechanics of novel
writing, a barely edited oddity.
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