Beneath the Soil
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Family trees and family secrets embroil amateur sleuth Suzie Fewings in a murder mystery: "A good choice for genealogists and cozy lovers" (Booklist).
Genealogy-enthusiast Suzie Fewings and her family are on an ancestral-history trip to Saddlers Wood Farm when they hear a gunshot ringing out. The local farmer and his wife, Philip and Eileen, seem strangely agitated and upset, and direct them to a ruined cottage in the wood . . . where Suzie gets the strangest feeling she's being watched. Two days later, they hear that Eileen has been shot dead and her husband arrested.
Suzie is convinced there is more to this than meets the eye, and she and her family investigate. But the police seem uninterested in their findings, and Suzie soon begins to feel that someone is following her every move . . .
"Genealogy buffs will appreciate how the protagonist's inherent curiosity about her past morphs into amateur detecting. Low-key, almost cozy, and great for readers who enjoy family ensemble casts." —Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sampson's sixth mystery featuring English genealogist Suzie Fewings (after 2012's The Overlooker) proves a rather tepid family affair. Suzie's husband, Nick; 15-year-old daughter Millie; and 19-year-old son Tom are all drawn into a murder at bucolic Saddlers Wood, where Suzie goes to research a 19th-century ancestor of hers, Richard Day. Soon after reaching Saddlers Wood, they hear a gunshot, then meet farmer Philip Caseley carrying a shotgun. After a tense exchange with Philip, they have a separate, equally awkward conversation with his wife, Eileen, who directs them along a bramble-filled path to the ruined cottage where Richard once lived. Soon afterward, the Fewings learn that Eileen has been shot dead and Philip is being questioned. Revisiting the cottage, Suzie and Tom discover a possible clue a survey nail but their interference in the case displeases Chief Det. Insp. Alice Brewer. The plot bogs down into repetition until a family member is endangered, leading to an unsurprising conclusion.
