Pale as the Dead: A Genealogical Mystery

by Fiona Mountain

Book Overview

This is the first stunning installment of a riveting new mystery series that uncovers the secrets of the dead. "Pale as the Dead" deals with the mysterious death of Lizzie Siddal, a real and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451216172
• ISBN13: 9780451216175
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Pale As the Dead

A great book for those interested in genealogy. Keeps you on your toes to the very end.

Quiet, understated English mystery

Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain is the first book in the Natasha Blake series. Natasha is a professional genealogist who is contacted by a mysterious young women's boyfriend after the girl's disappearance. The only clue to her identity is an old diary that Natasha uses to find out who she really is and why she's gone. At first I was a bit put off by the distant writing style Mountain uses throughout the book, but as I continued reading, I could see that it is merely Natasha's way of looking at the world and that Mountain's writing is brilliant at portraying that. I was hoping for more in the way of actual family tree investigation, but I can see that Mountain is really setting up Natasha with a series of minor characters who will make appearances in future novels, and perhaps there will be a bit more depth to everyone in those. (The next book Bloodline is already at the top of my stack).

Strong on character and atmosphere, weak on plot

Pale as the Dead is a promising first mystery that -- like many first mysteries -- is strong on character and atmosphere, and a bit weak on plot. In Natasha Blake, Mountain has created a character with an interesting profession and enough personal problems to see us through several more installments of the promised series. Mountain writes evocatively of the Cotswolds (where Natasha lives) and of London and Oxford (where she often goes to do research). And she's obviously done a great deal of research on a number of subjects (the pre-Raphaelites, the profession of genealogy, medical issues), and manages to work the results of her research into the book without stopping it dead in its tracks. The problem is that the solution to the mystery (at least, the 21st-century part of the mystery) seems anti-climactic, after everything that came before it. But everything up to that point was so good, that slight flaw won't stop me from reading the next Natasha Blake mystery.

exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating ?detective?

On a photo shoot in the Cotswold, model Bethany Marshall hires genealogist Natasha Blake to research her family tree. At that initial consultation, Bethany animatedly discusses Pre-Raphaelite model, artist, and wife of Dante, Lizzie Siddal. Also at that consultation, Natasha meets the photographer Adam Mason, who is working on an exhibition to emulate the style of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. He asks to a do a shoot of Natasha, to which she unenthusiastically consents.Before he can take her picture, Adam informs Natasha that Bethany vanished, leaving behind an old Marshall family diary. Since her address was inside and Bethany is her client, the "ancestor detective" begins a search for the missing woman. As she learns more about her subject and the Marshall ancestry, Natasha panics fearing history could repeat itself because of Bethany's obsession with Lizzie, whose life end tragically. PALE AS THE DEAD is the exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating "detective" whose expertise is in researching the past. The story line is cleverly designed so as Natasha learns more about her client's enthrallment and subsequently more about Lizzie, she realizes that fast intervention might be needed to prevent a repeat tragedy. The look into Dante and his age adds depth to the solid plot. Though the attraction between Natasha and Adam is mindful of the movie Suspicion, it also takes away from the haunting theme of whether Bethany will become Lizzie number two. Still this is a unique tale starring a delightful individual who makes a fine sleuth whether it is the past or the present.Harriet Klausner

Genealogy with a twist.

Natasha Blake is a genealogist with a flair for hunting out the off-beat in family histories. Her curiosity is fuelled by her own unknown antecedents and by her instinctive leanings to the unusual and hiden secrets od various families. She is hired by a beautiful young girl, Bethany, who is obsessed by the artist and artists model, Lizzie Siddal, wife of the pre-raphaelite painter, Rossetti. The story is both ethereal and all too real as the past and the present intertwine. This is the first of a series featuring Natasha Blake as a genealogist-detective and one which I look forward to reading soon.